Abortion in Ohio: Judge temporarily halts 6-week ban

CINCINNATI, Ohio (WCMH) - Abortions in Ohio are legal again through 20 weeks of gestation, at least for now.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Christian Jenkins, a Democrat, penned the ruling Wednesday, which creates a temporary block for two weeks against S.B. 23, also known as Ohio's heartbeat bill.

"S.B. 23 clearly discriminates against pregnant women and places an enormous burden on them to secure safe and effective health care such that it violates Ohio’s Equal Protection and Benefit Clause and is therefore unconstitutional," Jenkins wrote.

The decision in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court marks the latest in a series of legal challenges to the state law. Ohio's heartbeat bill had been waiting to take effect since being signed into law in April 2019. The law prohibits abortions after the first detectable fetal heartbeat, which can surface six weeks into a pregnancy.

A federal court blocked enforcement of the Heartbeat Law three months after it passed, but that changed after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Attorney General Dave Yost successfully petitioned the federal court to dissolve the injunction, and though the law saw challenges from Ohio abortion clinics, was upheld by the state supreme court.

In the weeks post-Roe, a national audience targeted Ohio's six-week abortion ban for debate with a real-world example of it in practice: a 10-year-old sexual abuse victim traveled to Indiana for an abortion.