No waiting period: Abortion clinics doing same-day services after court win

By Morgan Trau

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    COLUMBUS, Ohio (WEWS) — Abortion clinics around Ohio are now providing same-day services after a judge blocked the state’s law requiring a 24-hour waiting period to access the care. This marks the first ruling on reproductive rights since voters legalized and protected abortion access in 2023.

Thanks to a Columbus court, Ohio now has fewer barriers to getting an abortion.

“It’s life-changing for so many of them because it really means they have access to the health care in their time frame,” Abortion Forward’s Jaime Miracle said, referencing patients.

Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge David Young has temporarily blocked a state law that Miracle said puts a burden on patients.

“The waiting period forces abortion care providers to depart from that duty by denying time sensitive care for a specified minimum period putting patients’ health and wellbeing at risk,” Young wrote.

The law required two in-person appointments with a 24-hour waiting period in between to get the abortion medication or procedure.

“Most people who have abortions in our state and across the country already have kids at home, so not only are they trying to juggle their schedules and taking time off work, but they’re trying to find extra childcare for their kid on not one day but two days,” Miracle added. “They’re having to travel multiple times.”

This ruling also paused the requirement that doctors give certain information to the patient, including medical risks and the probable gestational age of a zygote, blastocyte, embryo or fetus.

And the injunction is already having an impact.

“Patients who were expecting to have to come twice could get an abortion in the clinic that day,” Miracle said.

Cleveland’s Preterm and Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio have started offering same-day services, she said.

State Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) said he doesn’t think abortions should be happening in the first place but that a waiting period makes sense to him.

“To make sure that that on something that’s so important that there’s adequate time in the decision-making process to decide whether you wanna do something or not that is quite irreversible,” Cirino said.

Voters overwhelmingly chose in Nov. of 2023 to protect access to abortion, enshrining the right into the state constitution.

Still, Attorney General Dave Yost plans to appeal this ruling. Cirino added that there is nothing unconstitutional about regulating what doctors can do.

“The people spoke but that doesn’t mean that the state legislature, who is responsible for the safety and wellbeing of its citizens, can’t reasonably maintain levels of control and restrictions that we see are appropriate,” the lawmaker said.

Judge Young is a Democrat, so it will likely be fully struck down, eventually reaching the Ohio Supreme Court.

This means that, essentially, abortion is on the ballot again this fall.

“You need to vote for Supreme Court justices who will enforce, not ignore the amendment so that it actually impacts the lives of patients like this ruling did last week,” Miracle said.

Three of the seven seats on the court are opening — with two Democrats and one Republican up for reelection.

But there’s another important case set to come down Thursday.

Yost asked that the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas throw out a lawsuit that would eliminate the six-week abortion ban, just months after saying that the ban would be void if voters chose to legalize and protect access to abortion. This comes after the Supreme Court dismissed his argument and sent it back to the lower court.

Now, the AG is explaining that although the filing has no explicit mention of this, the AG only wants to fight for “other provisions” — and not the ban itself.

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