An Ohio county judge on Friday temporarily blocked several state laws that impose a 24-hour waiting period for abortions in the state, marking the first ruling to challenge a 2023 constitutional amendment that would guarantee access to abortions.
Republican Attorney General Dave Yost said he would appeal.
Franklin County District Judge David C. Young said the language in last year’s first lawsuit was “clear and unambiguous.” He found that lawyers for Preterm Cleveland and the other abortion clinics and doctors who brought the suit had clearly demonstrated that “the statutes at issue burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with or discriminate against patients who exercise their right to abortion and against the health care providers who assist them in exercising that right.”
The rules in question include 24-hour waiting period requirements, in-person consultation requirements and several state provisions requiring abortion-seeking patients to provide certain information — provisions that Young said do not promote patient health.
“This is a historic victory for abortion patients and all Ohio voters who supported a constitutional amendment protecting reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy,” Jesse Hill, a supporting attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said in a statement. “Ohio’s newly amended Constitution works as voters intended – protecting the fundamental right to an abortion and prohibiting the state from infringing on it except as necessary to protect the health of pregnant women.”
Hill said the ACLU will continue to press ahead with efforts to make the temporary injunction permanent.
Young rejected the state’s argument that the legal standard that existed before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 should have been applied. The Dobbs decision, which replaced Roe, returned decision-making power to the states, Young wrote.
Yost’s office said the 24-hour waiting period and informed consent laws have been consistently upheld under Roe, the national law that has protected legal abortion for nearly 50 years.
“We hear people and recognize that reproductive rights are constitutionally protected,” Yost spokeswoman Bethany McCorkle said in a statement, “But we respectfully disagree with the court’s decision that it is burdensome to require doctors to seek informed consent and wait 24 hours before performing an abortion. These are essential safety features designed to ensure women receive appropriate care and make an autonomous decision.”