Ohio House of Representatives Continues All-Out Assault on Reproductive Freedom

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio

For Immediate Release – December 8, 2020

Contact: Laurel Powell, Director of Media Relations, [email protected]

Ohio House of Representatives Continues All-Out Assault on Reproductive Freedom

COLUMBUS, OH — Only days after threatening abortion access and infringing on the rights of those seeking abortions with the passage of Senate Bill 27, the Ohio House of Representatives has added Senate Bill 260 to its hearing schedule. Originally passed through the Ohio Senate earlier this year, S.B. 260 would place a blanket ban on abortions performed with the use of telemedicine, and would cut off access to safe, legal abortion for patients who currently have difficulty accessing a health care provider especially for these services.

Bans on use of telemedicine for medication abortion are not based in concern for patient safety, but an intent to eliminate access to safe, legal abortion and have already been blocked by courts in other states. The Iowa Supreme Court declared a ban on telemedicine abortions to be unconstitutional in 2015, citing the lack of medical support for prohibiting it, and noting that the Iowa Board of Medicine’s medical concerns about telemedicine “are selectively limited to abortion.”

Lauren Blauvelt-Copelin, Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Advocacy at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, issued the following statement:

“This is yet another volley in an all-out assault on reproductive rights during the lame duck legislative session. Especially in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century, telemedicine is a vital tool to ensure that patients – especially those in medically underserved areas – can safely and quickly get the health care they need. To selectively ban medication abortion access while expanding telemedicine use for other medical needs serves no purpose except to further curtail access for those who need it.

The majority of Ohioans support access to safe, legal abortion. Republicans in the Statehouse should stop using the lame duck session, when they think no one is paying attention, to ignore the will of the people.”

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Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio supports advocacy for reproductive health and reproductive rights, including grassroots organizing, community education, and lobbying. www.ppao.org