Gov. DeWine Signs Budget Amid Protests in Support of Reproductive Freedom and Abortion Access

Columbus — Despite calls for transparency and amid protests in support of reproductive freedom and abortion access, Gov. DeWine last night signed a budget full of last minute amendments that are guaranteed to harm his constituents by taking away health care access and forcing damaging, inaccurate curricula onto Ohio students.  

Amendments added at the last minute to the Senate passed version of House Bill 110:

• Threaten all abortion providers in Southwest Ohio including the Planned Parenthood Cincinnati Surgical Center and Women's Med Center of Dayton. These providers have been targeted because they have variance agreements directly with physicians instead of a transfer agreement with a private hospital. Both the variance and transfer agreement requirements are completely medically unnecessary and are entirely about adding hurdles to abortion providers, making it more difficult for them to keep their doors open. The budget amendment seeks to further restrict access by listing additional medically unnecessary restrictions the physicians contracted through the variance must comply with including arbitrary distance requirements.
• Further suppress comprehensive sex education by adding barriers to schools that want to teach a comprehensive curriculum rather than abstinence-only programming, which is not accurate and causes harm to students.
• Give medical practitioners the ability to refuse to participate in any medical treatment that they object to regardless of harm to the patient, including gender-affirming care, contraception, fertility treatments and abortion care.

Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region President & CEO Kersha Deibel: “We do our work with the lives of Ohioans at heart and we expect our elected officials to do the same. Amendments that threatens the highest quality of abortion care and create barriers for comprehensive sex education are not in the best interest of Ohioans. Ohio continuously tries to force abortion providers, and only abortion providers, to jump through medically unnecessary hoops simply to make it difficult for providers to keep their doors open. Ohio needs more access to health care and education, not less—and we will continue to do everything we can to ensure Ohioans are receiving the high quality care and information they deserve.”

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio Vice President of Government Affairs & Public Advocacy Lauren Blauvelt-Copelin: “Governor DeWine, by signing this budget without vetoing these dangerous amendments, demonstrates again how out of step he and Republican leadership is with everyday Ohioans. Parents across the state want their kids to have the best possible sexual health education, and this budget threatens that. The majority of Ohioans support access to abortion, and the budget threatens that too. This is all on top of millions of dollars of funding for fake abortion clinics that lie to people about their options. Ohioans deserve better.”

Ohio organizations in support of reproductive freedom and abortion access rallied during a noontime protest on Tuesday held around the Ohio Statehouse in in opposition to harmful policies in Ohio Budget bill. 

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