The Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, signed into law a measure to criminally penalize doctors who don’t provide medical care to babies born alive after an abortion attempt.
Ohio Senate Bill 157, also referred to as The Born Alive Infant Protection Act, “creates protections for children who are born alive after a failed abortion attempt,” a release from DeWine’s office on Dec. 22
reads.
The new law also “expands abortion manslaughter to include failing to take measures to preserve the health of a child born alive after an abortion, and creates a right of action for the affected mother to sue a person guilty of abortion manslaughter.
“The bill also creates new rules around ambulatory surgical facilities where abortions are attempting to be performed, in order to ensure the health and safety of a child when born alive after an abortion.”
State Sen. Terry Johnson, a Republican, sponsored the bill.
“Thank you Governor DeWine for standing up for Ohio’s newborns and protecting life at its most vulnerable stage,” Johnson
said in a statement after the measure was signed into law. “Every child, no matter the circumstances surrounding his or her birth, deserves our compassion and care.”
The bill will require the attending doctor to report circumstances of babies who survive the abortions, and penalize them if they are found not to have done so. The Department of Health will then annually publish the number of babies who survive abortions in Ohio while keeping the details confidential,
according to a release from the Ohio Senate about the new law.
Provision Opposed By Planned Parenthood
The new law makes sure that taxpayer dollars are not directly or indirectly funneled into abortions, by blocking doctors from working for state-funded hospitals and medical schools if they separately consult as a doctor for an abortion clinic.
Planned Parenthood objected to the bill due to the provision, saying it would disqualify “all physicians who teach medical students or are affiliated with public hospitals and institutions from entering these contracts with abortion clinics.”
“There is no medical justification for disallowing qualified, experienced physicians from agreeing to provide backup coverage for abortion providers under a variance,” Adarsh Krishen, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio,
said in a statement. “In fact, if the state was genuinely concerned for patient safety, such physicians would be ideal. Instead, this provision is only meant to make it more challenging for abortion providers to remain licensed and operational.”
The Center for Christian Virtue, Ohio’s largest Christian public policy lobby,
suggested the provision “could potentially shut down two abortion clinics—Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio and Women’s Med Center in Dayton—who rely on state-funded doctors for their services.”
“Today the state of Ohio has made a bold statement about where our values lie—with women, children, and families—not with the abortion industry which demeans and exploits them,” Nilani Jawahar, the group’s legislative liaison,
said in a statement.
She said the law has “life-affirming provisions” and is “a declaration that Ohio will fight back wherever we can to keep our beautiful state from becoming a dark place where the weak and helpless are discarded to serve the interests of the powerful.”
“The Born Alive Infant Protection Act, with all its life-affirming provisions, is a declaration that Ohio will fight back wherever we can to keep our beautiful state from becoming a dark place where the weak and helpless are discarded to serve the interests of the powerful.”
