While advocates continue to back legislation that would outlaw or limit abortion though Ohio has a constitutional amendment protecting reproductive rights, a new bill goes too far for many abortion opponents. The Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act would treat abortion like homicide by granting criminal and civil protections from the point of fertilization.
A so-called “personhood” bill has been introduced in Ohio before, but this is the first time since voters approved the 2023 amendment.
The bill from Reps. Levi Dean (R-Xenia) and Johnathan Newman (R-Troy) also strikes a blow to in-vitro fertilization, where an egg and sperm are fertilized outside the body, by banning destruction of those embryos. It could also affect some contraception.
End Abortion Ohio Executive Director Nicholas Kallis said a rally at the Statehouse on Wednesday will support lawmakers backing the bill, which Kallis said "simply acknowledges the personhood of the preborn and provides to them the equal protection of the law.”
Kallis said there are no exceptions for abortion, even in the case of the life of the woman. Anything that would destroy a fertilized egg would be protected. And though IVF is not mentioned specifically in the bill, Kallis said it would likely collapse under this bill.
“The IVF industry effectively treats preborn individuals as less than human, as something that can be discarded and thrown away at will. The intentional destruction of innocent human life is part and parcel to how IVF is practiced in America," Kallis said. "So that would certainly be affected by this bill even though the bill doesn’t explicitly mention IVF."
The bill would criminalize anyone who has an abortion or takes a medication that plays a part in destroying a fertilized egg. It would also levy penalties against anyone who helped assist or provide in those efforts. And the legislation could make IUDs and oral contraceptives also illegal.
Major anti-abortion groups don’t support this bill
Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said his organization does not support this bill.
“For well over 50 years, Ohio Right to Life has never supported any initiative, legislative or regulatory, that would criminalize a birth mother for having an abortion,” Gonidakis said. “It is wrong, out of bounds and inappropriate.”
Ohio Right to Life had opposed the six-week abortion ban known as the "Heartbeat Bill" when it was first proposed in Ohio in 2011, but supported the bill later and when it passed and was signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019. It levied penalties against abortion providers, but not against patients. That law was on hold until June 22, 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Hours after that decision, Ohio officials went to court to reinstate the six-week ban. It was put on hold again in September 2022 because of a lawsuit by abortion rights advocates. A judge permanently struck down the six-week ban as unconstitutional in October 2024, but the case has been appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Gonidakis, a former senior deputy attorney general, said he believes the reproductive rights amendment makes the bill unconstitutional, and he doesn’t believe the majority of Ohio lawmakers will vote to pass it.
“I would find this rather unlikely to ever hit the governor’s desk,” Gonidakis said.
Gonidakis said his organization does not take a position on contraception or IVF.
Citizens for Christian Virtue, another organization that has supported abortion bans, is also not supporting this bill.
Abortion rights advocates say it is unconstitutional
Abortion Forward Deputy Director Jaime Miracle called this bill “a direct affront to the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment", which was approved by 57% of Ohioans in 2023. Miracle agreed with Gonidakis that the bill is unconstitutional.
"This bill, just like the other ones that have been introduced in the last couple of weeks and months, really just shows the complete disdain that our legislature has for the will of Ohio voters," Miracle said. “Ohio voters spoke loud and clear in 2023. In fact, they had to speak twice in two different elections to tell legislators to stay out of reproductive health care decisions. And yet we just see them continuing to attack it."
Miracle said this bill goes far beyond others that limit or ban abortion. And she said it is the reason why the reproductive rights amendment was written the way it was.
“They don’t stop at just abortion. And that’s why when we drafted the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment, we included things like IVF and contraception and miscarriage care and pregnancy care because we knew that attacks on those would come as well,” Miracle said.
Backers of "personhood" maintain it's constitutional
Kallis said the amendment his group supports is constitutional under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and that Ohio's reproductive rights amendment is unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court has not taken up a case challenging that issue, but in the Dobbs case the high court ruled abortion regulation is up to individual states.
Kallis said a fair amount of Ohio legislators support this bill “in theory” because every Republican lawmaker says they oppose abortion and this bill is consistent with that. But he said he knows it is an uphill climb to get it passed.
