Abortion access has been restored to women in the state of Ohio after a Hamilton County judge temporarily blocked Ohio’s six-week abortion ban for the next 14 days.
The judge’s ruling will allow access to abortions for up to 20 weeks.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Christian Jenkins ruling comes after a lawsuit filed on behalf of Planned Parenthood challenged Senate Bill 23, which limited women from having an abortion after six weeks.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, and other defendants in the case, are prohibited from enforcing the law until Sept. 28.
Abortion providers in Ohio will be able to offer the procedure on any woman until 20 weeks into pregnancy for the next 14 days.
“No great stretch is required to find that Ohio law recognizes a fundamental right to privacy, procreation, bodily integrity and freedom of choice in health care decision making,” Jenkins wrote.
The six-week abortion ban went into effect the day that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Following the ruling, Abortion clinics filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court in an attempt to block the six-week abortion ban. Abortion advocates filed a new lawsuit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court after months of waiting on the Ohio Supreme Court to hand down a ruling.
“The record is replete with evidence of women who have suffered and whose health has been placed in jeopardy as a result of S.B. 23,” Jenkins wrote. “…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.”
Judge Jenkins following his ruling