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ACLU Sues Over Ohio’s “Heartbeat Bill” Six-Week Abortion Ban
By: Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau
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The ACLU has filed a lawsuit to challenge Ohio’s “Heartbeat Bill”, a ban on abortion at the first detection of a fetal heartbeat. That can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
The law was signed in April, but wouldn’t take effect for three months. The ACLU of Ohio’s Legal Director, Freda Levenson, said a legal challenge was coming.
“This is a very clear violation of women’s constitutional rights that have been established for close to fifty years under Roe vs Wade which became the law of the land in 1973. Women have a categorical right to abortions up until fetal viability,” Levenson said just after the ban was signed.
Levenson said courts have struck down similar laws in other states and she expects the same with this one. Gov. Mike DeWine and other backers of this law say they expected this, and hope it will eventually be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court with the chance of overturning Roe vs. Wade.
Six states have passed similar bans – the most recent one approved in Georgia.
More details on this story as they become available.