An Ohio judge issued a ruling today blocking the state’s heartbeat law that bans abortions when an unborn child’s heartbeat can be detected.
Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins granted a temporary restraining order in a case filed by the Planned Parenthood abortion business against the law. The decision means Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost can’t enforce the law for two weeks while the case continues.
Jenkins said the pro-life law is causing “irreparable harm” because he considers killing babies health care. The judge says nothing of the fact that blocking the law will cause “irreparable harm” to unborn children who lives will be ended in abortions.
“The record is replete with evidence of women who have suffered and whose health has been placed in jeopardy as a result of S.B. 23,” Jenkins wrote. “[…]S.B. 23 clearly discriminates against pregnant women and places an enormous burden on them to secure safe and effective health care such that it violates Ohio’s Equal Protection and Benefit Clause and is therefore unconstitutional.”
Jenkins also made no mention of the fact that unborn babies face discrimination without the law because they can be killed in abortions without due process or respecting their right to life.
The decision puts the pro-life law on hold until a decision about a permanent injunction is reached.
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Yost said Planned Parenthood and abortion businesses should not get an injunction because they already lost at the Ohio Supreme Court and are using this second case to piggyback hoping that it is more successful.
“[B]y July 1, the plaintiffs knew that they could not obtain emergency relief from the Heartbeat Act in the mandamus case. Still, they chose to maintain that action rather than dismiss the case and seek emergency relief elsewhere,” Yost wrote. “[…]Any emergency that exists today is an emergency of their own making.”
The state’s highest court has since dismissed the other case and abortion companies are desperately hoping this second case will give them a win.
Yost argued the plaintiffs don’t have standing to challenge the law because they are not potential abortion customers. He also said there is no constitutional right to abortion in Ohio and that the Dobbs decision allowed state legislators to make abortion law.
Ohio Right to Life President Michael Gonidakis responded to the decision and told LifeNews he thinks the abortion ban will go back into effect soon.
“By forum shopping, abortion activists temporarily got what they wanted which is the ability to abort children with a beating heart. Nowhere in the Ohio Constitution or anywhere in the Ohio Revised Code will any Ohioan find supporting evidence that Ohio’s current heartbeat law is anything other than good law which saves lives,” he said.
He added: “We are more than confident that the heartbeat law will go back into effect relatively soon. Further, we can assure pro-life Ohio that in the near future Ohio will become abortion free, regardless of what this local judge ruled today. We will prevail.”
Ohio abortion business filed suit in state court seeking to overturn the newly-minted heartbeat law that has begun saving babies from abortions following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
After the decision, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued an executive order directing the Ohio Department of Health to adopt emergency rules implementing Ohio’s Heartbeat Law. This Executive Order was in response to the federal court lifting the injunction on Ohio’s Heartbeat Law. Attorney General Dave Yost filed a legal request to lift the injunction due to the United States Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.
Preterm-Cleveland, Planned Parenthood Greater Ohio and other abortion businesses were behind the lawsuit. In addition to Preterm and Planned Parenthood, plaintiffs include Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, Women’s Med Group Professional Corp. in Dayton, Northeast Ohio Women’s Center, Toledo Women’s Center and Dr. Sharon Liner, an individual abortionist.
As LifeNews reported, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, with a 6-3 majority ruling in the Dobbs case that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion” — allowing states to ban abortions and protect unborn babies. The high court also ruled 6-3 uphold the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban so states can further limit abortions and to get rid of the false viability standard.
Chief Justice John Roberts technically voted for the judgment but, in his concurring opinion, disagreed with the reasoning and said he wanted to keep abortions legal but with a new standard.
Texas and Oklahoma had banned abortions before Roe was overturned and Missouri became the first state after Roe to protect babies from abortions and South Dakota became the 2nd. Then Arkansas became the third state protecting babies from abortions and Kentucky became the 4th and Louisiana became the 5th and Ohio became the 6th and Utah became the 7th and Oklahoma became the 8th and Alabama became the 9th. This week, Mississippi became the 10th and South Carolina became the 11th,Texas became the 12th with its pre-Roe law and Tennessee became the 13th.
Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia have old pro-life laws on the books but there is question about whether they are applicable and will be enforced.
Ultimately, as many as 26 states could immediately or quickly ban abortions and protect babies from certain death for the first time in nearly 50 years.
The 13 total states with trigger laws that would effectively ban all or most abortions are: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
“Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Alito wrote.
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer authored a joint dissent condemning the decision as enabling states to enact “draconian” restrictions on women.
Polls show Americans are pro-life on abortion and a new national poll shows 75% of Americans essentially agree with the Supreme Court overturning Roe.
Despite false reports that abortion bans would prevent doctors from treating pregnant women for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, pro-life doctors confirm that is not the case. Some 35 states have laws making it clear that miscarriage is not abortion and every state with an abortion ban allows treatment for both.
