Abortion rights in America: why Ohio is the new battlefront
There’s a new front in the battle over abortion rights – Ohio – where sweeping restrictions have just come into force. And Texas takes up the debate again on a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks.
Campaigners have called it “part of an orchestrated effort to roll back women’s rights and access to health care in Ohio”, after a series of tough restrictions on abortion rights were signed into law by Ohio’s Governor John Kasich.
It will cut more than $1m in federal funding to Planned Parenthood centres, which they say will put at risk up to twelve of their clinics. If rape crisis centres give victims advice about abortion, they could lose funding too.
Doctors will be compelled to perform ultrasounds on women seeking a termination, and to tell them if they detect a foetal heartbeat.
It’s controversial, unpopular, and well out of the mainstream. Democratic adviser Elisabeth Smith
And most extreme of all, if a woman does manage to get an abortion in Ohio, and there is some kind of medical emergency, the doctor will no longer be allowed to send her to a public hospital for treatment. She will have to find – and pay for – a private one instead.
The measures were part of a $2.7bn budget bill, which was passed by the state legislature: protestors had urged the governor to veto the clauses, along with 22 other provisions which he struck off the final bill, but in the end, he declined.
No Democrats supported the measures – and one senior party adviser, Elisabeth Smith, was quick to send out a political message in an email to reporters: “This is why Mitt Romney lost in 2012”, she said, calling it “controversial, unpopular and well out of the mainstream”.
But Mike Gonidakis, president of the anti-abortion group Ohio Right to Life welcomed the new rules: “It took great compassion and courage for our governor and pro-life legislature to stand up to the abortion industry that blatantly pressured him”.
Texas debates bill – again
And over in Texas, state senator Wendy Davies said she was preparing for a new fight, after governor Rick Perry opened a special session to vote on a bill which would ban most abortions after 20 weeks.
Critics said the sheer cost of meeting the various provisions meant only a small fraction of the state’s abortion clinics would be able to stay open.
Last week the Democrat managed to frustrate passage of the bill by attempting to talk it out with a marathon 13 hour filibuster. As hundreds of supporters cheered and shouted encouragement from the public gallery, the measure was declared dead in the water.
On Monday, Governor Perry, a staunch conservative Republican, insisted he would prevent what he called the same “turmoil” and “mob rule”, and said the final vote could even be held as early as next week.
Pro choice activists called a protest rally outside the Capitol building as the debate began inside, telling supporters: “Now we must stand together again to demand justice for all women in Texas.”
The Lone Star state would not be the only one to adopt such restrictions. The Washington Post points out that a dozen states have passed similar rules since 2010, and a recent poll shows that Americans narrowly agree.
But Texas Democratic party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa has already declared, it’s not over. “As this last week has shown, we are ready to fight.”
Felicity Spector writes about US affairs for Channel 4 News