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By Susan Tebben

Special to The Times

Opponents of Ohio legislation that seeks to reimpose a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion said the bill not only conflicts with the constitution, but discriminates against reproductive health care.

The Ohio House Health Committee met to hear testimony against Ohio House Bill 347, a bill that only allows an abortion if a physician meets with the pregnant person at least 24 hours before the abortion “to provide specified information and document the woman’s informed consent,” with the exception of a medical emergency.

The bill creates civil liability penalties against a physician who doesn’t follow HB 347, and also allows the State Medical Board — on which the head of an anti-abortion lobby group sits — to adopt rules “specifying adverse physical or psychological conditions arising from abortion that a physician must disclose as possible complications when meeting with the pregnant (person) as part of the informed consent process,” according to a bill analysis by the Legislative Service Commission.

But abortion rights advocates who spoke at the committee hearing said a state-mandated delay in care would only create more problems, health and otherwise, for pregnant individuals.

A 24-hour waiting period was also already in state law, before a lawsuit was filed, and a Franklin County Common Pleas Judge blocked enforcement of it as the lawsuit continues. A final decision in the case won’t come until at least summer of this year, as deadlines in the case already extend into April.

Anastasia Martinez, of the Ohio Women’s Alliance Action Fund, said waiting to have her procedure under the previous law only served to increase her stress, not change her mind.

“The 24-hour waiting period … did absolutely nothing to my decision,” Martinez said. “It just increased my anxiety, it forced me to take not only medical leave off of work, but mental health days off of work as well.”

Republicans on the committee questioned the amount of burden that would be placed on pregnant individuals to wait 24 hours, and argued that no other medical service is provided the same day as it is requested. Abortion rights advocates said it’s misleading to claim that abortions happen in an on-demand way.

“You’re not getting your appointment the same day, or day-of, or on-demand,” said Laura Sullivan, of the Ohio-based family planning center Just Choice. “You’re scheduling your appointment, just like you would any other medical procedure, and you’re waiting until the day of your appointment, and then you get your medical procedure on the day of your scheduled appointment.”

Other bill opponents pointed to the fact that abortion procedures are singled out in H.B. 347, though some of the care is the same as non-abortion services.

Abortion Forward’s deputy director, Jaime Miracle, told the committee she’d had a procedure called a D and C, short for dilation and curettage. Though the procedure is used in surgical abortions, it is also used to remove tissue in an effort to diagnose other medical issues.

Miracle said her D and C wasn’t for an abortion, but under this bill, someone receiving the exact procedure for an abortion would have to wait at least a day. She said the only difference between her experience and a pregnant individual’s “is a positive pregnancy test or a negative pregnancy test.”

“So, if you’re saying that informed consent needs to happen one way for somebody having an abortion, but can happen in a completely different way if somebody’s having the same exact procedure, or using the same exact medication, that is discriminatory under the constitution, and not how medicine should be practiced,” Miracle said.

State Rep. Jennifer Gross, R-West Chester, was one committee member who seemed to dismiss opponents’ concerns about the delay in care, asking opponents “what’s the harm?”

“It’s not a force, it’s an opportunity to look at all the data, the consent before you, and make an informed consent decision, not coerced or rushed,” Gross said.

But Miracle and others denied the idea that the waiting period was an “opportunity,” and said the 24 hours is rarely just that long, especially for those who have child care or transportation worries.

“The way that we access abortion care in Ohio, people have plenty of time to sit and think,” Sullivan said. “I don’t know where the thought is that people don’t have adequate time to process their choice, because from the time you decide, make an appointment, (and) actually have your appointment, there’s a lot of time; typically weeks.”

Those who will be affected most by imposing further regulations on abortion are those who are already “historically oppressed in this country,” according to Myia Rucker, director of membership for the Ohio Women’s Alliance. That includes Black and brown communities, LGBTQ+ individuals, low-income families, rural Ohioans, youth, violence survivors, and residents without the privilege of paid time off.

“For someone working hourly without paid leave, living in a rural county, arranging child care, or navigating an unsafe relationship, that ’24-hour waiting period’ can mean multiple days or weeks of hardship, additional cost, and unnecessary mental and emotional strain,” Rucker said.

State Rep. Angela King, R-Celina, asked Rucker if, as a minority woman, it “bothered” her that new data from the Ohio Department of Health showed 48.9% of abortions obtained in 2025 were among Black pregnancies.

“I think, as a Black woman, it annoys me more that the mortality rates for Black and brown women and the maternal death rates are higher,” Rucker said. “I think that irritates me more.”

Overall infant mortality and maternal mortality rates have been a consistent struggle for the state. In a budget overview in the same committee last week, Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said he hoped federal funding through the Rural Health Transformation Fund could be used to bolster efforts, adding that “doing more of what we have done in the past unsuccessfully is probably not the way to go.”

Original story can be found at https://ohiocapitaljournal.com