Ohio abortion-ban legislation

The Cincinnati Enquirer this morning has an article saying that legislation being introduced at the Statehouse tomorrow banning abortions in Ohio once a fetus' heartbeat is detected is seen by both sides of the abortion issue as a likely test case that could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ohio, as a matter of fact, has several bills proposing new abortion limits -- including stiffer penalties on health clinics and doctors who don't follow state law, according to a second article, including:

• SB 8 .and HB 63 concerning abortions to minors
  
• HB 79 prohibiting health plan coverage for abortions
  
• HB 7 and 78 revising criminal statutes governing post-viability abortions

Abortions have been legal in every state of the Union since Roe v. Wade in 1973. In its one article on the subject, WikiPedia says that “prior to ‘Roe’, there were exceptions to the abortion ban in at least 10 states; ‘Roe’ established that a woman has a right to self-determination (often referred to as a 'right to privacy') covering the decision whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, but that this right must be balanced against a state's interest in preserving fetal life… Roe established a ‘trimester’ system of increasing state interest in the life of the fetus corresponding to the fetus's increasing ‘viability’ (likelihood of survival outside the uterus) over the course of a pregnancy, such that states were prohibited from banning abortion early in pregnancy but allowed to impose increasing restrictions or outright bans later in pregnancy. That decision was modified by the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the ‘central holding’ in Roe that there is a fundamental right to privacy encompassing the decision about abortion, but replacing the trimester system with the point of fetal viability (whenever it may occur) as defining a state's right to override the woman's autonomy."

The topic has remained volatile.

A 2007 Stateline article commented on the diversity of the states’ positions, saying, "Six states – Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota -- have so-called trigger laws waiting on the books to make abortion illegal as soon as federal policy permits. Three more states – Arkansas, Missouri and North Dakota – have passed weaker laws declaring the state's intention to criminalize abortion, but experts say those laws can’t be enforced.

"In contrast, seven states have passed laws ensuring the legality of abortion whether Roe v. Wade stands or falls: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada and Washington. California and nine others also have constitutional language interpreted by courts as protecting a woman’s right to end her pregnancy."