Sunday, July 2, 2017

Ohio Right to Life’s Dismemberment Abortion Ban Clears Ohio Senate

Legislation to Shield Unborn Babies from Dismemberment


By Ohio Right to Life Alert
National Right to Life

On Thursday, Ohio Right to Life’s Dismemberment Abortion Ban (S.B. 145) was overwhelmingly approved by the Ohio Senate, 24-9. The legislation, which is sponsored by Senators Matt Huffman (R-Lima) and Steve Wilson (R-Maineville), is being heralded by Ohio Right to Life as the next step in the national strategy to end abortion. 

The passage of the bill coincides with the 50th anniversary of Ohio Right to Life’s founding. In more recent history, Ohio Right to Life has successfully advocated for the enactment of 18 pro-life laws. Since 2010, abortions have dropped 25 percent in Ohio, falling to a 39-year record-low in 2015.
“For the first time since the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, we’re advancing legislation that addresses the brute force of abortion head-on,” said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life said, “Every year in Ohio, thousands of babies are brutally dismembered by the abortion industry, ripped limb from limb and extracted piece by piece. Ohio Right to Life applauds the Ohio Senate for taking us one giant step closer to adding this game-changing pro-life law to the record.”
Dismemberment abortion is a procedure in which the abortionist first dilates the woman’s cervix and then uses steel instruments to dismember and extract the living baby from the uterus. In 2015, the Ohio Department of Health reported nearly 3,000 D&E abortions in the state of Ohio.

The Dismemberment Abortion Ban is built in part on the precedent set in Gonzales v. Carhart (2007) which upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, scaling back the scope of Roe v. Wade. In the Court’s opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court’s swing-vote on abortion, described what occurs in a D&E abortion: “[F]riction causes the fetus to tear apart. For example, a leg might be ripped off the fetus…” He continued, “No one would dispute that for many, D&E is a procedure itself laden with the power to devalue human life.”

The Ohio House is expected to take up the Dismemberment Abortion Ban in the fall when the legislature returns from summer recess.

Ohio Right to Life asks its members to send a letter of support to their state representatives by using its Legislative Action Center at www.ohiolife.org

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