Reproductive Freedom issue image

Preterm-Cleveland v. David Yost

Status: Ongoing
Last Update: October 25, 2024

What's at Stake

On September 2, 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the law firm WilmerHale filed a lawsuit in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas bringing a state constitutional challenge against SB 23, a law banning abortion starting at approximately six weeks of pregnancy. This lawsuit came more than two months after the draconian bill took effect on June 24, 2022 for the first time since it was passed in 2019, causing an immediate, devastating crisis across the state. Due to the ongoing irreparable harm to Ohioans, the reproductive rights organizations withdrew the lawsuit they initially filed in the state Supreme Court in late June and asked the lower court to grant immediate relief blocking the ban.

After hearing oral argument on October 7, 2022, the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas granted the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction against SB 23, temporarily blocking the State from enforcing the ban while the case continued. Then, on October 24, 2024, following final briefing on the merits, the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas issued a final order holding the vast majority of SB 23—including its six-week ban—to be unconstitutional, and permanently enjoining its enforcement. This marks the first permanent injunction stemming from Ohio’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment, which took effect in December 2023. This is also the first permanent injunction throughout the country of an abortion ban following the passage of a pro-abortion rights ballot amendment. The reproductive rights organizations and WilmerHale filed the lawsuit on behalf of Preterm-Cleveland, Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, Women’s Med Group Professional Corporation, Northeast Ohio Women’s Center d/b/a Toledo Women’s Center, and Dr. Sharon Liner, an individual abortion provider, to protect the right to abortion in Ohio under the Ohio Constitution.

Banning abortion for women and anyone that needs abortion care disproportionately harms people of color, those struggling to make ends meet, young people, rural residents, immigrants, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ communities. If abortion is banned in Ohio, Black women and other people of color will bear the brunt of the harm it inflicts. These communities already face a severe maternal mortality crisis that is worse in states that ban abortion.

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