{"id":19446,"date":"2023-10-24T06:32:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T11:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=19446"},"modified":"2023-10-24T06:32:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T11:32:38","slug":"this-procedure-is-banned-in-the-us-why-is-it-a-hot-topic-in-fight-over-ohios-abortion-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=19446","title":{"rendered":"This procedure is banned in the US. Why is it a hot topic in fight over Ohio\u2019s abortion amendment?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) \u2014 With Election Day closing in<\/u><\/a>, anti-abortion groups seeking to build opposition to a reproductive rights measure in Ohio are messaging heavily around a term for an abortion procedure that was once used later in pregnancy but that hasn\u2019t been legal<\/u><\/a> in the U.S. for over 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ads, debates and public statements, the opposition campaign and top Republicans have increasingly been referencing \u201cpartial-birth abortions\u201d as an imminent threat if voters approve the constitutional amendment on Nov. 7. \u201cPartial-birth abortion\u201d is a non-medical term for a procedure known as dilation and extraction, or D&X, which is already federally prohibited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would allow a partial-birth abortion,\u201d Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told reporters recently as he explained his opposition to the constitutional amendment, known as Issue 1<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor many years, in Ohio and in this country, we\u2019ve had a law that said a partial-birth abortion \u2014 where the child is partially delivered and then killed and then finally delivered \u2014 was illegal in Ohio,\u201d the governor continued. \u201cThis constitutional amendment would override that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Constitutional scholars say that is not true and that the amendment would not override the existing federal ban if Ohio voters approve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u201cSo changing our constitution will not affect in the slightest way the applicability of the federal partial-birth abortion ban,\u201d said Dan Kobil, a law professor at Capital University in Columbus, who supports abortion rights. \u201cIt would be a federal crime for a doctor to violate that ban.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution calls for federal laws to trump state laws, said Jonathan Entin, professor emeritus of law at Case Western Reserve University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the federal law prohibits a particular technique, then that\u2019s going to prevail over a state law that might be inconsistent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Ohio is the only state this November where voters will decide whether abortion should be legal. But the debate isn\u2019t happening in isolation. The state has been used as a campaign testing ground by anti-abortion groups after a string of defeats<\/u><\/a> since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned<\/u><\/a> a constitutional right to the procedure. And next year, abortion rights supporters are planning to put the question before voters in several more states<\/u><\/a>, ensuring the issue will be central to races up and down the ballot<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A D&X procedure involved dilating the woman\u2019s cervix, then pulling the fetus through the cervix, feet-first to the neck. The head was then punctured and the skull emptied and compressed to allow the fetus to fit through the dilated cervix. Before the federal ban, it was used for both abortions and miscarriages in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeWine was serving in the U.S. Senate when the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act<\/u><\/a> was passed in 2003. He voted for the prohibition, which declared a \u201cmoral, medical, and ethical consensus\u201d that the procedure was \u201cgruesome and inhumane.\u201d President George W. Bush signed the measure into law with DeWine at his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ban was largely on hold while a constitutional challenge<\/u><\/a> played out. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2007<\/u><\/a> rejected arguments against the law, upholding its application across all 50 states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked why the governor suggested a federal law he supported would not apply if Ohio changes its constitution, spokesman Dan Tierney said DeWine bases his position on provisions of the U.S. Constitution that prevent the federal government from regulating conduct that has no effect on interstate commerce. Kobil acknowledged that argument, but said it\u2019s \u201calmost certain to fail\u201d if tested, given that the Supreme Court already declared the ban constitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeWine isn\u2019t the only top elected Republican in the state to warn that the procedure would be revived if the amendment passes on Nov. 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a memo earlier this month, Republican Attorney General Dave Yost said the state\u2019s laws outlawing abortions through D&X and another procedure, non-intact dilation and evacuation<\/u><\/a>, or D&E, the most common second trimester method, \u201cwould both be invalidated and these abortions would be permitted\u201d if the amendment passes. The Ohio Senate\u2019s Republican supermajority passed a resolution saying something similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entin, of Case Western, said \u201cto the extent that the Ohio laws he\u2019s discussed are also covered by the federal law, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d because federally banned procedures would remain illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelsey Pritchard, director of state public affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, whose political arm is a major funder of the campaign opposing the amendment, said the federal ban \u201clacks enforcement\u201d under a Biden Administration she described as \u201cextreme pro-abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s not being enforced, if there\u2019s no teeth to it, then the protections need to happen at the state level,\u201d argued spokesperson Amy Natoce of Protect Women Ohio, the Issue 1 opposition campaign. \u201cOf course, if Issue 1 passed, we won\u2019t have those protections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mae Winchester, a Cleveland-based maternal fetal medicine specialist, said use of the term in the campaign messaging over the amendment is misleading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Partial-birth abortion\u2019 is a made-up term that only serves to create confusion and stigmatize abortion later in pregnancy,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a procedure that\u2019s described anywhere in medical literature, and so it\u2019s not considered a medical term or even an actual medical procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio passed the nation\u2019s first ban on what its lawmakers then dubbed \u201cpartial birth feticide\u201d in 1995, just three years after Ohio physician Martin Haskell debuted the D&X procedure during an abortion practitioners conference. He touted it as a way to avoid an overnight hospital stay and as safer and less painful for women than other methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protect Women Ohio has invoked Haskell\u2019s legacy in one of its ads. It shows an image of Haskell and describes the procedure he pioneered as \u201cpainful for the mother and the baby.\u201d The voiceover then calls for a no vote on the amendment \u201cso people like Dr. Haskell can\u2019t perform painful \u2018late-term\u2019 abortions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spot doesn\u2019t note the distinction between \u201cpartial-birth\u201d and \u201clate-term\u201d abortions \u2014 both non-medical terms coined by anti-abortion advocates \u2014 nor reference the federal ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, said because of protections provided to individuals and abortion providers in the amendment, \u201cThe ad withstands any scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haskell retired from active practice two years ago. He declined comment. But he has donated to the main group supporting the constitutional amendment, Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pro-Choice Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland called talk of \u201clate-term\u201d and \u201cpartial-birth\u201d abortions a scare tactic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIssue 1 allows for clear restrictions on abortion after viability that protect patients\u2019 health and safety,\u201d she said. \u201cThese situations, when a woman needs an abortion later in pregnancy, are incredibly rare and heartbreaking for families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio hasn\u2019t had an abortion of any type performed after 25 weeks\u2019 gestation since 2018 and only four have been recorded since 2013, according to statistics<\/u><\/a> compiled by the state Health Department. Abortions between 21 and 24 weeks\u2019 gestation, a span that encompasses the outside limit of Ohio\u2019s current law, totaled 576, or 0.6% of the total, over that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pritchard, of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, attributed the low numbers to the state\u2019s existing abortion restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) \u2014 With Election Day closing in, anti-abortion groups seeking to build opposition to a reproductive rights measure in Ohio are messaging heavily around a term for an abortion procedure that was once used later in pregnancy but that hasn\u2019t been legal in the U.S. for over 15 years. In ads, debates and public statements, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5780],"tags":[1307,7082,5193,1613,23612,3638,1981,1830,23613],"class_list":["post-19446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-livehood","tag-abortion","tag-amendment","tag-banned","tag-election","tag-hot","tag-legalization","tag-medical","tag-ohio","tag-topics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19448,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19446\/revisions\/19448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}