This Respect Life Month, the pro-life landscape is drastically different than it was just one year ago, and we anticipate that one year from now could be horrifically unrecognizable.
On a positive note, we at Greater Columbus Right to Life are pleased to welcome Paul Borchard as our new executive director. He will be taking over the day-to-day efforts at GCRTL as I transition to the role of president. We look forward to introducing Paul to the wider Catholic and pro-life community. Paul has his work cut out for him! Please keep him and our work in your prayers.
The Ohio Department of Health issued the annual abortion statistics report for 2023. The results were grim, but not entirely unexpected.
Abortions throughout Ohio rose from just over 18,000 to 22,000. Much of that increase was due to two factors. The first is that the 2022 figures were impacted by nearly three months where Ohio’s Heartbeat Law protected babies with detectible heartbeats. That law was ruled unenforceable during a legal challenge after about three months and was not in effect in 2023. The second is that we saw an extraordinary number of women who traveled from out of state to Ohio to procure an abortion in 2023. The pro-life faithful should be prepared that both the number of women coming to Ohio from other states and the stripping away of Ohio’s life-affirming laws is going to continue. Gird your loins.
Last year, 60 babies died each day in Ohio by abortion; 10 of them died in one of two central Ohio abortion clinics. Black women continued to have a disproportionately high number of abortions at about 44%. About 7% of women having abortions reported Hispanic ethnicity. Not only did the number of women traveling to Ohio more than double, but the number of minors – including girls 14 or younger, having abortions nearly doubled. Statewide, about 45% of abortions were via the abortion pill, and in central Ohio 81% of abortions were committed by the abortion pill.
Ohio data also illustrates the risks of abortion. The state reported 79 botched abortions via abortion pill. Surgical abortion complications included lacerations, hemorrhages, hematometras, infections and more. This is likely a low number, as emergency rooms are not required to report abortion complications and in the case of the abortion pill may not even know it was an induced abortion.
Post Article 1, Section 23 (2023 Issue 1), things will only get worse. This fall, a Hamilton County judge issued a preliminary injunction halting most of Ohio’s laws governing the abortion pill. This includes the requirement that only physicians provide them and that they are only distributed in accordance with the FDA’s health and safety guidelines (including gestation limits of 10 weeks. Local clinics are already offering the abortion pill beyond 10 weeks).
This not only opened the doors to advanced practitioners like physician assistants and nurses being permitted to provide the abortion pill, but it may also result in them being pressured or forced to. It certainly will allow retail pharmacies, like CVS and Walgreens, which are distributing the abortion pill in other states but had deferred to Ohio law, to start stocking them.
A Franklin County judge issued a similar restraining order against Ohio’s waiting period and informed consent law. This law required that women seeking an abortion be given an opportunity to meet with a doctor to get information on their pregnancy and options as well as the right to see an ultrasound or hear the fetal heartbeat before their abortion. It also required that the woman had to meet with the doctor alone to consent to the procedure as one final safeguard against a compelled or threatened abortion. This is not a moot point. In 2010, a Columbus man was arrested and charged with kidnapping and attempted murder when he forced his girlfriend to a Columbus abortion clinic at gunpoint. She was able to tell clinic staff what was happening in private.
Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have also indicated that they intend to pursue additional litigation. While provisions related to Ohio’s gestational limits continue through the courts, attorneys with the group and representing abortion providers indicate that they will be bringing lawsuits against Ohio’s non-discrimination law that protects unborn children with Down syndrome from being aborted purely based on their disability. They also have specifically mentioned Ohio’s insurance prohibitions – likely Ohio’s requirement that taxpayers not be required to pay for most induced abortions through state employee healthcare or Medicaid.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has pledged to appeal these decisions, but ultimately these intentionally vague and broad terms will be decided by the Ohio Supreme Court, the makeup of which will be hotly contested this November.
Last year, we traveled the state telling people how extreme and anti-woman the intentionally broad language drafted by the ACLU was. They used tens of millions of dollars from extremist organizations to mislead Ohioans on the real results. Now they are using the courts, exactly as we said they would, to eliminate the common-sense health and safety regulations that have been keeping women safe. This is not pro-woman. It is pro-profit, pro-abortion and pro-abuser, and it always has been.
Last year, abortion advocates violated HIPPA laws in revealing that a 10-year-old girl who was raped by someone known to the family traveled to Indiana to get an abortion. They did it to pursue a political agenda. We’ve noted again and again that little girl was victimized by the man who raped her but also by the doctor who she was told would help her. What she really needed was someone who would protect her and advocate for her. In 2023, 71 young girls age 14 or younger were provided abortions in Ohio. We cannot help but wonder how many of those girls were also the victims of sexual assault and whether or not their cases brought to local law enforcement for investigation and prosecution. Medically licensed persons are mandatory reporters of abuse under Ohio law.
Unfortunately, Ohio has become an abortion tourism state. Women are coming from as far away as Florida and being offered same-day abortions. Pro-abortion advocates are advancing their agenda in the political, legal, and financial sphere – suing for taxpayer funding and raising millions of dollars to subsidize death.
We, however, are not without hope and we are not without recourse. Pro-life volunteers who give of their time to stand witness and offer help outside of the abortion clinics make a difference every single day. They are often the last sign of hope and the first sign of mercy to a woman walking into an abortion clinic. We rejoice when we hear the stories and hold the babies born with their help, and we grieve when we hear the lament, “I wish someone like you had been there that day.”
We can no longer count on Ohio’s laws to protect unborn children and pregnant women, but I pray that we can count on you. Visit www.gcrtl.org or call 614-445-8508 to get our analysis of the abortion report, sign up for one of our October volunteer training programs, bring a speaker to your church, or volunteer for an hour (or a day) with 40 Days for Life. Thank you for standing for Life.
Beth Vanderkooi is the president of Greater Columbus Right to Life.