Ohio Senate Continues to Invade Ohioans’ Personal Health Care Decisions
For Immediate Release: March 27, 2019 (Updated: Feb. 3, 2020, 11:10 p.m.)
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF ADVOCATES OHIO
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, March 27, 2019
CONTACT: [email protected]
Ohio Senate Continues to Invade Ohioans’ Personal Health Care Decisions
COLUMBUS, OH — Today, the Ohio Senate will be voting on Senate Bill 27, the medical tissue disposal bill. This shameful legislation is designed to invade people’s privacy and place burial rituals on those who have already made the decision to have an abortion. Additionally, this bill blatantly ignores established laws and regulations that are already in place that require safe and respectful disposal of medical tissue following a medical procedure, including surgical abortion.
In September 2018, a federal judge blocked similar Texas laws requiring the burial or cremation of aborted medical tissue, saying in a decision the measures placed substantial and unconstitutional obstacles in the path of a woman’s right to choose an abortion. This case is now before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Similar court challenges to fetal tissue disposal are being heard in Indiana and Arkansas.
Statement from Iris E. Harvey, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Advocates of Ohio:
“This bill has nothing to do with patient safety. There are already laws in place that require safe tissue disposal and Planned Parenthood follows them. This is just a smaller part of a coordinated attempt by anti-abortion politicians to place so many restrictions on patients and medical providers that they effectively eliminate a woman’s access to safe, legal abortion services.
“This bill was introduced months after then Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine made politically motivated and untrue claims against Planned Parenthood —claims that were quickly discredited and caused DeWine to back down. The 133rd Ohio Legislature is picking up the baton.
“While we are deeply concerned about laws that unnecessarily burden health care providers and interfere in the private medical decisions of Ohio’s women, Planned Parenthood will continue to do what we have always done: remain a place where people across Ohio can turn for care.”
Legislation similar to this was first introduced years ago after the former Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s politically motivated, false claims against Planned Parenthood — claims that Attorney General DeWine quickly backed down from when Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against the state. Despite this fact, the legislature is picking up the baton again and doing all they can to make abortion illegal in Ohio.
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Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio supports advocacy for women’s reproductive health and women’s rights, including grassroots organizing, community education, and lobbying. www.ppao.org