Ohio judge blocks law requiring fetal remains be buried or cremated
An Ohio law requiring fetal remains to be buried or cremated is unconstitutional under the state's abortion rights amendment, a judge ruled Thursday.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Alison Hatheway permanently blocked Senate Bill 27, which requires patients or abortion clinics to choose how to dispose of fetal remains. The GOP-controlled Legislature passed the bill in 2020, but multiple lawsuits prevented it from going into effect.
Abortion rights groups sued in 2022, more than a year before Ohioans voted to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution. Hatheway said Senate Bill 27 violates the amendment by targeting patients who seek an abortion, noting that it doesn't apply to those who have a miscarriage.
It also does nothing to further patients' health, Hatheway said.
"(The law) serves only to target and discriminate against individuals seeking procedural abortions and their healthcare providers," Hatheway wrote in the decision.
Republicans began pushing for the law after then-Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine drew attention to abortion clinics that used a third-party company to dispose of fetal remains in a Kentucky landfill. The bill did not penalize patients, but abortion providers who failed to comply could have been charged with a first-degree misdemeanor.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Dave Yost said his office was reviewing the decision and would consider all possible next steps. Ohio Right to Life president Mike Gonidakis said he expects Yost to appeal. Ohio Right to Life president Mike Gonidakis said he expected Yost to appeal the decision.
"Senate Bill 27 offered respect and dignity to children who lost their innocent lives to abortion," Gonidakis said. "A dignified burial is not a burden to have an abortion. It is the least we as Ohioans can provide to these kids."
Thursday's ruling was the latest domino to fall after voters approved the abortion rights amendment in 2023.
A judge ruled last year that Ohio's ban on most abortions was unconstitutional, although Yost is appealing that decision. Courts also lifted restrictions on telemedicine and blocked a 24-hour waiting period for patients.
"Arbitrary laws that create barriers to abortion care and threaten patient privacy come from out-of-touch politicians who have abused democracy, and Ohioans have had enough," said Lauren Blauvelt, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio. "We are encouraged that the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment has, for a fourth time, ended a law that stigmatized people seeking abortions."
(This story was updated with additional information.)
Statehouse bureau reporter Jessie Balmert contributed.
Haley BeMiller covers state government and politics for the Paste BN Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.