Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging an Ohio law that establishes rules for the humane burial of aborted babies.
The Unborn Child Dignity Act, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in December, is similar to an Indiana law that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2019.
It requires the Ohio Department of Health to establish rules for the proper and humane burial or cremation of aborted babies, and requires abortion facilities to pay for them. It also creates penalties for violations. Such laws not only ensure that aborted babies’ bodies are treated with dignity and respect, but they also are a safeguard against abortion facilities trying to sell aborted baby body parts.
In the lawsuit Tuesday, the ACLU argued that that abortion facilities could be unfairly penalized because the law takes effect on April 6, but the state does not have to issue rules until July 5.
“The absence of regulations leaves Ohio abortion providers in an impossible situation that we did not ask for or create,” it said in a statement. “We file this complaint to ensure that we are not vulnerable to severe sanctions, fines and penalties, including potential license revocation, during this interim period.” However, it did not explain how abortion facilities could be penalized under non-existent regulations.
Follow LifeNews.com on Instagram for pro-life pictures and videos.
Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, slammed the lawsuit as more proof of the abortion industry’s callous disregard for innocent life.
“Requiring the broken bodies of abortion victims to be humanely buried is simply common decency,” Gonidakis said. “The abortion industry’s desire to deny the innocent unborn even the right to a proper burial reveals where their allegiances lie: not with basic decency, but with their bottom line.”
Pro-abortion groups lobbied against the law before it passed, claiming it would shame women and abortion workers. NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio executive director Kellie Copeland even argued that the legislation could “put lives at risk” by limiting access to abortion.
But abortions do not save lives, they destroy them, and pro-life leaders promised to continue fighting to protect life in Ohio.
“Regardless of all obstacles thrown in our way, Pro-Life Ohio will never cease our advocacy until the dignity of every precious and irreplaceable human life is both respected and protected under law,” Gonidakis said.
The pro-abortion groups that filed the lawsuit are the ACLU, ACLU of Ohio, Northeast Ohio Women’s Center, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region and Preterm-Cleveland.
In the past several years, a number of states have passed legislation to regulate how abortion facilities dispose of aborted babies’ bodies. Their actions came in the wake of viral undercover videos that exposed top officials at Planned Parenthood negotiating the prices of aborted babies’ body parts. Later, the Ohio Attorney General’s office discovered that Planned Parenthoods in Ohio contract with waste disposal companies that dispose of aborted babies in landfills.
Neighboring Indiana passed a similar law when Mike Pence served as governor and later won a victory at the Supreme Court in 2019.
A gruesome discovery inside a late Indiana abortionist’s garage in 2019 further demonstrated the need for such laws. In September 2019, authorities found 2,246 medically preserved remains of aborted babies stored in boxes in the former Indiana abortionist Ulrich Klopfer’s garage in Illinois. A few weeks later, they found 165 more babies’ remains in a vehicle stored on one of his properties. Klopfer’s family reported finding the remains shortly after he died.
