COLUMBUS, Ohio — Even though enforcement of Ohio’s law mandating a 24-hour waiting period before receiving an abortion procedure has been blocked in court following the passage of the citizen-led reproductive rights amendment, Republicans in the statehouse are nonetheless looking for ways to reinstate the restriction.
Republican Reps. Mike Odioso of Green Township and Josh Williams of Sylvania Township are touting State House Bill 347 as the “SHE WINS” Act. “SHE WINS” is an acronym created for the bill which stands for Share the Health and Empower With Informed Notices.
Their proposal would require a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion procedure for a physician to provide detailed information about the procedure, the risks associated both with the abortion procedure being used and bringing a pregnancy to full term, alternatives like adoption, and more. The meetings can take place via telephone, virtual meetings, email, or in-person visits.
The requirements would apply only to elective abortions, and does not include procedures for miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies or in a medical emergency.
For medication abortions, physicians would be also required to inform patients that “it may be possible to reverse the effects of the abortion-inducing drug if she changes her mind, but that time is of the essence” — a complaint questioned by the medical community.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “claims regarding abortion ‘reversal’ treatment are not based on science and do not meet clinical standards.” The organization also states that “unfounded legislative mandates,” to provide such information “represent dangerous political interference and compromise patient care and safety.”
The bill is pending in the Ohio House Health Committee and still must clear the full House and the Senate before it could be sent to the governor for signing. Odioso and Williams offered sponsor testimony Wednesday.
In questioning from Rep. Michele Grim, a Toledo Democrat, Williams conceded the bill does not specify who will be providing the materials on the risks for abortion procedures nor how those materials will be drafted.
“There’s no requirement of what information is actually provided, nor the particular type of material that needs to be provided, just that the information is given,” Williams said.
Rep. Anita Somani, the ranking Democrat on the Health Committee who also is a physician, challenged the sponsors on whether any other medical procedures have legislatively mandated waiting periods.
Williams admitted that he knew of none.
In his testimony, Williams argued that the legislation simply brings abortion procedures in line with standard medical informed consent practices used for other surgical procedures. Williams referenced his own recent rotator cuff surgery, noting that he knew 24 hours in advance who would perform the procedure and what risks were involved.
“When I went in for my rotator cuff surgery, I knew 24 hours in advance what doctor was going to perform surgery on me. I knew what the risks and rewards, potential complications were, of that surgery before I ever scheduled that surgery,” Williams said.
“And I think the very minimum is that if we believe that abortion is actual reproductive care that it is actual health care, then it should be held to the same medical standard of informed consent.”
That said, there is no law in the state of Ohio mandating that Williams wait 24-hours before receiving care for his rotator cuff.
The bill does not seek to litigate the 2023 reproductive rights amendment passed overwhelmingly by voters in 2023, Odioso said. Reproductive rights advocates disagree, and the legislation would all but certainly face legal challenges if passed.
When Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David Young blocked the state’s 24-hour waiting period in 2024, he cited the 2023 Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment in his ruling.
“What it [the amendment] says is you can’t put restrictions on access to care that are not the least invasive, that are not for proven medical reasons,” Kellie Copeland, executive director of Abortion Forward, which was instrumental in passing the citizen-led initiative.
The amendment ensures that every individual in the state has the right to make their own reproductive rights decisions, including but not limited to abortion until fetal viability — consistent with the standard once set by Roe v. Wade— as well as contraception, fertility treatment, continuing a pregnancy, and miscarriage care.
“The state shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against either an individual’s voluntary exercise of this right or a person or entity that assists an individual exercising this right, unless the state can demonstrate that it is using the least restrictive means in accordance with widely accepted and evidence-based standards of care,” the amendment states.
“[The bill] is being used as a vehicle to say that patients who are seeking abortion care don’t really know their own minds. They really don’t know what they’re doing. And so, these big, powerful, smart politicians are going to tell them, ‘You need to sit down and think about this some more,’ as though people haven’t already thought this through,” Copeland said.
“People are perfectly able to know their own minds, to make their own reproductive health care choices, because they’re the experts. They’re the experts on their own lives. They’re the experts on what’s best for them and their families,” she continued.