Reproductive rights regulated, tested in Ohio Republican bills, as Dems continue attempts to protect
As the current Ohio General Assembly goes into its second year in 2026, abortion will still remain a topic of legislation, in small efforts to change laws, and large attempts to codify or prohibit the practice.
Republicans and Democrats have clearly drawn their lines in the sand when it comes to where they’d like the state to go on reproductive rights, but the GOP supermajority certainly has the edge when it comes to hearing bills on their side of the aisle.
A constitutional amendment was passed in 2023 with 57% of the vote, enshrining reproductive rights including abortion into the Ohio Constitution, but Republican lawmakers are looking at ways around that.
Democrats introduced Ohio House Bill 128 in February to further drive home the amendment, including attempting to repeal laws that don’t align with it. Republicans introduced Ohio House Bill 370, which has been called another “personhood bill” because of its attempt to apply 14th Amendment rights to “preborn persons.” The bill also repeals any state law that would “otherwise allow a person to direct, advise, encourage, or solicit a mother to abort her child.”
The bill emphasizes the U.S. Constitution’s overriding provision, taking precedent over anything in the Ohio Constitution “contrary to it,” according to the language of the bill.
The Democrats’ bill does the opposite, seeking to repeal “archaic laws in our state that do not improve outcomes or access to care,” as bill co-sponsor Rep. Anita Somani, D-Dublin, put it when the bill was introduced.
While neither bill has seen a hearing since being assigned to their committee, the new year is likely to be more friendly to the GOP bill because of the party’s supermajority, though previous attempts at “personhood bills” haven’t fared well, and pro-abortion advocates say they are unpopular nationwide.
Somani previously introduced a similar bill to the recent one Dems introduced, trying to repeal anti-abortion regulations in state laws. That bill died at the end of the previous General Assembly, having only received one hearing.
The Dublin representative, who is also an OB/GYN, is pushing forward with attempts to further change language in state law with another bill, Ohio House Bill 245.
The bill seeks to change rules for the Ohio Parenting and Pregnancy Program, which provides grants to entities who help with pregnancy services and parenting education. Currently, the program specifies that those receiving grants must “promote childbirth, rather than abortion, through counseling and other services, including parenting and adoption support.”
The new bill would delete that language, along with a provision in the law that excludes entities from receiving grants if they are “involved in or associated with abortion activities, including providing abortion counseling or referrals to abortion clinics, performing abortion related medical procedures, or engaging in pro-abortion advertising.”
The bill removes anti-abortion language and adds text including abortion in the options allowed for counseling individuals who come to grant-funded facilities.
Information on contraception, reproductive health care, and sex education would also be allowed under the new bill.
The Ohio House Children and Human Services Committee received the bill in April, but has not held a hearing on it.
Abortion, directly and indirectly
The General Assembly is considering other bills that directly and indirectly point to abortion care.
Before abortion is even considered, certain facilities may have to determine whether they can afford to continue, as a bill moves forward seeking to take away state Medicaid funds in the same way a federal effort did in the most recent budget bill.
Ohio House Bill 410 has had three hearings in the House Medicaid Committee since being sent there in September.
It cites language in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in its effort to prohibit federal funds from going to nonprofit organizations who received more than $800,000 in federal and state Medicaid payments in 2023.
Federal Medicaid cuts have already been named as the cause of Ohio Planned Parenthood clinic closures and staff cuts this year.
Multiple bills currently being considered by committees in the Statehouse have to do with informed consent, in which patients receive state-mandated information on specific risks of abortion procedures and potential civil action that could be taken against providers and facilities.
Ohio Senate Bill 309 was heard once in the Senate Health Committee in October. That bill would require doctors to provide patients with a written statement to sign on the risks of abortion services, except in a medical emergency.
It also states that patients and patients’ families could sue the physician, the health care facilities, or others if complications arise that weren’t disclosed before the procedure.
Ohio House Bill 347, referred to the House Health Committee in June and with one hearing held, is a measure to permit “elective abortion” only after a physician meets with a pregnant individual at least 24 hours before the abortion to “provide specific information and document the woman’s informed consent.”
This may put the bill in conflict with an ongoing court case that struck down a previous provision in state law requiring a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion procedure.
A judge in Franklin County blocked the provision in August 2024, citing the constitutional amendment on reproductive rights in his decision. The case will extend into at least the spring before a final decision is released.
The Ohio House bill also creates civil liability against a physician who violates the bill, liability that lasts up to one year after the abortion procedure, or one year after “reasonable discovery of harm,” according to the bill.
The measure also permits the State Medical Board “to adopt rules specifying adverse physical or psychological conditions arising from abortion that a physician must disclose as possible complications.”
The State Medical Board currently includes Michael Gonidakis, a former leader for the anti-abortion lobby Ohio Right to Life, who is still affiliated with the organization.
OB/GYNs and pro-abortion advocates have said patients are already informed of the risks of abortion before a procedure is done under the medical training and rules that exist for medical professionals. Studies show severe complications are statistically rare.
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