The Quickie: Buckle Up, Buckeyes: Ohio Ballot Measure Is Heading to Court

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: Ohio abortion advocates file a lawsuit to correct ballot amendment language, Michigan Gov. Whitmer to announce plans to expand reproductive access, and Kansas clinics work to provide care for an influx of out-of-state patients.

BUCKLE UP, BUCKEYES: OHIOANS UNITED FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS GO TO COURT:  Just days after the Ohio Ballot Board approved a biased and inaccurate summary of the Reproductive Freedom Amendment, the coalition sponsoring the amendment is going to court. Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court to compel the ballot board to use the full text of the amendment — which, by the way, is shorter and clearer than the “summary” put forward by the ballot board — or to correct the summary. 

Among the flaws in the Ballot Board’s language: using “unborn child” rather than the medically accurate term “fetus”; making false claims about the amendment’s scope; and removing a list of procedures and medical conditions, like miscarriages and fertility treatments, in which abortion and reproductive care is used. For fun, you can go to readtheamendment.com to see what the measure actually says. 

“The Ballot Board’s members adopted politicized, distorted language for the amendment, exploiting their authority in a last ditch effort to deceive and confuse Ohio voters ahead of the November vote on reproductive freedom,” OURR’s Lauren Blauvelt said in a statement.

 

MICHIGAN KEEPS PUSHING REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM FORWARD: Last November, Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved the state’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment. But Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other pro-abortion rights lawmakers in the state aren’t resting on their laurels. 

In her “What’s Next” speech Wednesday, Whitmer plans to announce passing the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) — a blockbuster measure to expand abortion access — as a top priority for the fall legislative session. The RHA would repeal dozens of medically unnecessary and stigmatizing restrictions on abortion including a ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion, a forced 24-hour delay before abortion, and unnecessary clinic requirements. 

Paula Thornton Greear, president of Planned Parenthood of Michigan, told reporters on Monday how critical the RHA is for Michiganders. “The Reproductive Health Act will not only ensure that sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion, is finally treated like all other health care in Michigan,” she said. “ … While Michiganders now have the legal right to reproductive freedom, it’s time to finish the job and ensure that they also have meaningful access.” 

Read more from Michigan Advance and Michigan Public Radio. 
 

DESPITE CHALLENGES, KANSAS ABORTION PROVIDERS ARE STILL HERE : More than a year after the Supreme Court overturned abortion rights, and over a decade after the assassination of Wichita abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, Kansas’ providers continue rallying for their patients. In a new podcast for the Kansas Reflector, Planned Parenthood Great Plains (PPGP) president and CEO Emily Wales said that her team is as committed as ever to ensuring that patients feel comfortable and get the care they need. But they’re facing greater challenges. They’ve been flooded with patients from other states — in 2022 alone, they saw twice as many out-of-state patients as the year before. On top of that, a new counseling restriction — currently being challenged by PPFA and the Center for Reproductive Rights — is forcing PPGP to turn away 2-10 patients per day. Wales said to the Reflector, 

“We don’t have enough appointments to see everybody,” Wales said. “So the idea that somebody could get all the way here, feel like they hit the lottery, which is pretty much what it feels like for patients right now, when you find out you’re one of the few who get an appointment at all. And then you don’t actually get the care you need. It is devastating….

“For most of our team, myself included, it’s just been part of the work we’ve had,” Wales said. “We’ve just built into our processes and expectation that some patients won’t complete the form correctly, won’t be able to print it out. We’ll have to get rescheduled. And that was very frustrating for patients and upsetting for staff.”

Read more and listen at Kansas Reflector.