Ohio law banning almost all abortions will remain blocked as state constitutional challenge proceeds, judge rules

An Ohio law banning virtually all abortions will remain blocked while a state constitutional challenge proceeds, a judge said Friday. The ruling will allow pregnancy terminations through 20 weeks’ gestation to continue for now.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins issued the preliminary injunction from the bench after a daylong hearing where courthouse guards screened spectators and one abortion provider testified to wearing a Kevlar vest due to fears for her safety.

In impassioned remarks announcing his decision, Jenkins knocked the state’s arguments that the Ohio Constitution doesn’t ever mention abortion, and therefore doesn’t protect the right to one. He said a right doesn’t have to be named to be protected.

“This court has no difficulty holding that the Ohio Constitution confers a fundamental right on all of Ohioans to privacy, procreation, bodily integrity and freedom of choice in health care decision-making that encompasses the right to abortion,” he said.

He said the state failed to prove that the ban on most abortions after detection of fetal cardiac activity is narrowly tailored enough not to infringe on those rights. Rather, Jenkins said, the law is written “to almost completely eliminate the rights of Ohio women. It is not narrowly tailored, not even close.”

The state is expected to appeal.

The law, signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in April 2019, prohibits most abortions after the first detectable “fetal heartbeat.” Cardiac activity can be detected as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant. The law had been blocked through a legal challenge, briefly went into effect when the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was overturned, and then was again put on hold in court.

Jenkins’ ruling followed a day of testimony that varied little from existing societal and political arguments for and against abortion, and, he said later, surprised him in its failure to plow any new ground.

Ohio Right to Life President Michael Gonidakis said his organization was “saddened but not surprised” by the decision.

“The abortion clinics literally forum shopped to get the outcome they wanted. This is a moment in time for the pro-life movement and we are convinced that the Ohio Supreme Court will overturn this ruling,” Gonidakis said in a statement. “Nowhere in Ohio’s Constitution does a right to an abortion exist.”

Lawyers for abortion clinics…