Didn’t Ohio just protect reproductive choices with a constitutional amendment?
Yes, we did (by a 57%-43% margin), but that overwhelming vote is not the final word. Federal law supersedes Ohio law, including the Ohio Constitution. The federal government could impede or end access to reproductive services such as
- Abortion
- In vitro fertilization (IVF)
- Contraception
What will Democrats do to protect reproductive freedom?
President Biden’s administration has taken action to
- Protect access to abortion, including FDA-approved medication abortion
- Defend access to emergency medical care
- Support the ability to travel for reproductive health care
- Strengthen access to high-quality, affordable contraception
- Safeguard the privacy of patients and health care providers
- Ensure access to accurate information and legal resources
A Democratic President and Congressional majority in 2025 would likely pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which would protect both women and their doctors nationwide from medically unnecessary restrictions as they access or provide abortion care. A Democratic Congress would also be willing to protect and fund access to contraception, maternal health care, and support for families with children.
Radicals opposing reproductive freedom for Americans would overturn our vote in these ways.
- Congress could enact a law. For 2025, the Republican Study Council has proposed a number of laws that would put a hard limit on when abortions could occur, declare not only fetuses but also embryos and zygotes to be people, and criminalize doctors who are trying to save birthing people’s lives.
- We have already seen how this works in practice. Women and other birthing people are placed in danger of losing their lives because doctors fear to take any action that might be considered an abortion. Doctors are leaving states with draconian abortion laws, affecting all maternity care.
- A Republican President could employ an 1873 law known as the Comstock Act to prevent access to the most common method of abortion—medication abortion. Other old laws and regulations could be used similarly by the Department of Justice and other departments.
- Through additional judicial appointments—perhaps even Supreme Court Justices—the courts could be stacked with people who have an ideological commitment to prevent abortion and control reproduction and other very personal decisions. Some judges seem willing to overturn precedent and come up with novel (and shaky) reasoning to turn their personal beliefs into laws that affect all of us. For instance, a decision by the Supreme Court of Alabama, based on the idea of personhood from conception, shut down IVF clinics in the state.
Be the first to comment