Women's Rights Advocates Denounce Decision to Uphold Ohio Ban on Abortion Procedure

by NOW Staff

Women's rights advocates denounced a federal appellate decision this week to uphold an Ohio abortion ban.

The Ohio law, which passed in 2000 but has not been enforced due to court challenges, criminalizes a medical procedure known as intact dilation and extraction (D & X). On Dec. 17, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ban is constitutional because it provides an exception for a woman's health, but added that the Constitution does not "give physicians complete freedom to perform abortions using the procedure whenever they wish to do so."

The three-judge panel's 2-to-1 vote contradicts rulings from the Supreme Court and 12 other federal courts, and followed an unusual intervention from John Ashcroft's Justice Department, which filed a brief in support of the Ohio ban in Feb. 2002. In the June 2000 case of Stenberg v. Carhart, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to strike down a similar Nebraska ban on the D & X procedure because the prohibition did not include an exception to protect the health of the woman.

National Organization for Women (NOW) President Kim Gandy said that the court's ruling takes critical medical decisions out of the hands of doctors and would have "a chilling effect" on the ability of physicians to offer women the most appropriate medical care.

"This ruling shows what can happen when judges decide to do away with women's most fundamental rights," said Gandy, who noted that the two judges in the court’s majority are appointees of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. "We must not stand by and allow Bush and his friends to erode our rights."

For more information:

• Bush Administration Attacks Reproductive Rights in Federal Court (2/02)
• March to Save Women's Lives