This week, LPJL’s Vagical Mystery Tour made it happen in Columbus, OHIO on Sunday 6/24—just another stop on our uterine liberation tour/fun fest/fact-finding mission. And we have a very scary-ass report on The State of Reproductive Rights in the State of Ohio: it’s bad and getting worse. In fact, politicians in Ohio are shooting for “as bad as humanly possible.” Or inhumanly possible.
Ohio’s latest contribution to the conservative carnival of anti-choice legislation all over this country is a bill that proposes a full-on, no-shit-but it’s-all-shit, remember-to-flush-your-Constitutional-rights-down-the-toilet, utter and complete ban on abortion. As in “Wait, that’s clearly unconstitutional, right?” As in Duh! That’s why they’re doing it!
Ohio’s HB 565 would ban ALL abortions, even in cases of rape, incest or danger to the patient’s life! Oh, and the bill considers any collection of fertilized cells to be an “unborn human” under Ohio’s criminal code. That means that doctors AND the pregnant person who seeks an abortion could be charged with homicide, meaning they could get life in prison… or the death penalty! So yeah, “pro-life,” right?
This bill is obviously nothing but chum for the legal sharks to dangle in front of the Supreme Court in the hope that they’ll take the opportunity to overturn Roe vs. Wade—a distinct possibility if there’s any further personnel changes among the Supremes.
And if not? Well they’ve wreaked havoc on people’s lives, and cost the taxpayers of Ohio millions, so it’s all good, right? And pushing extremist bills like this provides cover for bills that aren’t quite as in the red on the crazy meter to actually pass. That’s what happened in 2016 when Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed a “fetal heartbeat” bill that would have banned abortion as early as six weeks… and then signed a 20-week abortion ban the very same day!
In addition to that 20-week ban, Ohio has the usual toxic menu of rules hostile to repro rights like nasty TRAP laws, and a 24-hour waiting period after mandatory “counselling.” They recently passed a law banning abortions for cases of Down syndrome that was such a blatant attempt at shaming that a judge blocked it.
Oh, and Ohio is one of those medieval states that actually helps to fund FAKE clinics! No wonder that over half of Ohio’s REAL clinics have closed under “moderate” Kasich. Now 56% of Ohioans live in a county with no abortion clinic.
So it’s not just Alabama, people! Reproductive rights are endangered in states all over the country—so that’s where LPJL is gonna be.
