COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill Wednesday that will strengthen Ohio’s abortion manslaughter laws after it was approved by Republican lawmakers.
According to the Legislative Service Commission, Senate Bill 157 will expand the crime of abortion manslaughter to include failure to take measures to preserve the health of a child born alive after abortion and allow the affected mother to sue a person guilty of abortion manslaughter. The law will require a physician who performs or attempts an abortion in a facility that is not a hospital and in which a child is born alive to immediately provide certain newborn care.
The state will also require the Director of the Ohio Department of Health to develop a child survival form that an attending physician must complete each time a child is born alive after an abortion or attempted abortion. The bill will require each facility in which a child was born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion to submit monthly and annual reports to ODH and for the department to issue annual reports summarizing the data.
The legislation had the support of a number of GOP legislators and was co-sponsored by Sen. Stephen Huffman, R-Tipp City.
“Ohio is a pro-life state. Senate Bill 157 is another step in our continued commitment to uphold the sanctity of human life,” Huffman said in October. “Regardless of what side of the abortion debate you are on, we can all agree that newborns deserve proper medical care and compassion.”
Those who are pro-choice, however, petitioned against the legislation. Dr. Erika Boothman, a Columbus-based OB-GYN, said the new law addresses a “non-existent problem.”
“Abortions do not happen after 20 weeks in Ohio,” Boothman said. “Fetal viability, so the ability to resuscitate a baby with a heartbeat is 22 (weeks) at the very, very earliest. So for facilities that are following this 20-week law, which all facilities are, this doesn’t happen.”
Boothman provided an example of a woman’s pregnancy that involved complications. Boothman said that the bill would require doctors to perform a futile attempt at resuscitation rather than allowing the baby to spend their final moments with their mother.
“Comfort measures and medications may be offered to the baby, but resuscitative efforts would not be taken as they would be futile and take the baby away from the mother’s arms,” she said.
The bill passed the Ohio Senate in a completely party-line vote of 25-6 and then was passed through the House by a 59-33 margin. The bill returned to the Senate for technical amendments, but passed by a 24-7 margin.
