Toledo
Blade...
Both sides of
abortion issue rally in Columbus
Versions of ‘Heartbeat Bill’ competing
By Jim Provance
COLUMBUS -- Foes and advocates of abortion rights squared off Tuesday
at the Ohio Statehouse as Republicans decide how far to push their
renewed grip on political power.
Competing bills to narrow the window during which a woman may have a
legal abortion are moving in the House and Senate with opponents of the
bills questioning their constitutionality and foes of abortion rights
debating which stands a better chance of surviving the inevitable court
challenge.
“The election this past November sent a new crew to Columbus, and we
have a lot of work to do in many areas,” Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R.,
Napoleon) said. He is sponsor of a bill awaiting a full House vote that
would bar an abortion as soon as a doctor detects a fetal heartbeat, as
early as six weeks after conception.
As a few dozen people rallied in support of the Heartbeat Bill on the
north side of the Statehouse, a smaller crowd rallied on the south side
to protest such bills and to support contraception and comprehensive
sex education as an alternative.
“They campaigned on jobs and the economy. They’ve done nothing,” said
Kellie Copeland, executive director of National Abortion Rights Action
League Pro-Choice Ohio. “It was a bait-and-switch, pure and simple. …
They have launched an all-out war on women and workers. Let me tell you
something. We didn’t start it, but we’re going to finish it.”
The Republican-controlled Senate last month voted 24-8 to forbid a
late-term abortion if a doctor determines that the fetus would be
viable after 20 weeks of gestation. The bill, sent to the House with
some Democratic support, has exceptions if the mother’s health or life
are in danger.
The House, however, is looking at the far more restrictive Heartbeat
Bill that last month cleared a committee by one vote. House Bill 125
provides an exception when the mother’s life is in danger, but a
similar exception for the mother’s health was dropped just before the
committee vote.
That bill has divided the Right to Life movement in Ohio. Ohio Right to
Life leadership did not attend Tuesday’s rally out of fear the
Heartbeat Bill goes too far in terms of the current legal environment.
They fear it could drag down with it other steps Ohio takes to narrow
the window for legal abortions in the state.
The bill’s supporters however, want to use it to convince the U.S.
Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that upheld a
woman’s right to privacy over decisions about abortion rights.
Although supporters of the Heartbeat Bill are predicting a House vote
any day, Speaker Bill Batchelder (R., Medina) said the measure lacks
“velocity” and that the conversation continues on which direction the
chamber will take.
“We have people from both sides working on it,’’ he said. “We have a
number of attorneys working on it. Obviously, we don’t want to send a
bill out that has caused division in the right-to-life movement.”
Janet Folger-Porter, president of Faith2Faith Action pushing the
Heartbeat Bill, insisted there’s room for both. “I support both, any
bill that protects anybody is what we’re for,” she said. “We’ll let the
courts sort them out.”
Read it at the Toledo Blade
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