Gov. Mike DeWine said his fellow Republican state lawmakers have work to do when they return this fall on making Ohio law clear on abortion, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled states have the power to regulate it. While DeWine did not say what he wants to see passed, he talked about bills that are non-starters.
Just before he toured the Ohio State Fair on opening day, DeWine said the discussion around abortion has gotten “off the rails a little bit.” That included the suggestion from at least one Republican state lawmaker to consider banning contraception.
“That's just absurd. No one is, in their right mind is going to go try to have the state be involved in a contraception decision. We've gotten even into marriage now, you know, this is not going to change what we have today in regard to that area," DeWine said.
The governor added: "When you're talking about those other things that's not what we're talking about. So, you know, I'm not we're not going to have any kind of change in contraception law. We're not going to have any kind of change in regard to marriage, for heaven's sake. It's not going to happen. That's not what we should be talking about."
Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Cincinnati), who sponsored the "trigger" ban that would have outlawed abortion immediately upon a Supreme Court decision striking down legalized abortion, has suggested in interviews that she would consider a ban on contraceptives.
Some Democratic lawmakers have said they will push for a constitutional amendment to guarantee access to abortion and birth control, but there's been no movement on that while lawmakers are in summer recess.
Ohio law bans same-sex marriage, but the U.S. Supreme Court legalized it in 2015 in a case from Ohio brought by Jim Obergefell, who is now a Democratic candidate for the Ohio House in Sandusky. He sued the Ohio Department of Health Director Rick Hodges for the right to be listed as the surviving spouse on his husband's death certificate.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in a concurring opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade suggested revisiting that Ohio case, as well as the 1965 case allowing use of contraceptives.
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