The Quickie: Abortion Rights Advocates in Ohio Move Ahead To Ensure Access In State Constitution
For Immediate Release: Dec. 15, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: Abortion rights advocates in Ohio move to ensure access, who determines access to abortion care in a post-Roe world, and a new special report uncovers the hidden impact of abortion bans.
ABORTION RIGHTS ADVOCATES IN OHIO MOVE AHEAD TO ENSURE ACCESS IN STATE CONSTITUTION: Following last month’s election victory, providers and abortion rights advocates in Ohio are moving forward with their plans to ensure that the passage of Issue 1, which enshrines abortion access in the Ohio constitution, would permanently remove the state’s six-week ban. The outcome of the election went into effect on December 7.
In a joint statement, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, along with other abortion rights groups in Ohio, said, “The citizens of our state have made it crystal clear that Ohioans have the right to make their own personal medical decisions regarding reproductive freedom, including abortion, and that abortion bans will not be tolerated. The Ohio Constitution is the highest law in our state and this amendment prevents anti-abortion politicians from passing laws to deny our bodily autonomy and interfere in our private medical decisions.”
Read more in ABC 5.
WHO DETERMINES YOUR ACCESS TO ABORTION CARE IN A POST-ROE WORLD: Kate Cox’s devastating story — and the stories of so many others have made it abundantly clear that in a post-Roe world, all too often, people are no longer able to decide what happens to their bodies, lives, and futures. As Dahlia Lithwick explains, there is a long list of people who decided they were more qualified than Kate Cox to make decisions about her body — and that she did not qualify for a medical exception to any of Texas’ abortion bans. Yes, you read that right. People who have no medical expertise denied Kate Cox access to an abortion. This is the sobering reality of the new world we are in.
Read more in Slate.
ON THE BRINK: NEW SPECIAL REPORT FROM ABC UNCOVERS HIDDEN TRUTH ON THE IMPACT OF ABORTION BANS ON PREGNANT PEOPLE, THEIR FAMILIES, AND THEIR DOCTORS: This week, ABC News released part one of “On The Brink,” a special report for Impact x Nightline on Hulu, led by longtime news anchor Diane Sawyer and senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott on the harrowing impact of abortion restrictions on patients who have experienced pregnancy-related medical complications.
Sawyers and Scott spoke with 18 women from 10 different states who shared that “their medical care was impacted by abortion bans -- bringing several of them to the brink of death,” as noted by ABC. "Our doctor, our nurses were crying at my bedside -- wishing they could do something with blank stares on their faces because they literally couldn't do anything until the bloodwork showed that I was dying," one woman shared.
Their stories are all too common in a post-Dobbs landscape, a sentiment echoed by nearly 100 physicians interviewed for the report, including Dr. Shelly Tien, a physician at Planned Parenthood of South, East, and North Florida, who expressed fear and confusion over how to provide essential health care they were trained to do while simultaneously trying to protect themselves.
Watch part one of “On The Brink” here. Read more from ABC here.