COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Abortion providers in Ohio sued Tuesday to block a state law requiring that fetal
remains from surgical abortions be cremated or buried, arguing a lack of rules makes complying
"impossible."
Clinics and their lawyers at ACLU of Ohio filed suit against the Ohio Department of Health and others in
Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. They asked the court to block the law as an unconstitutional hurdle
to women’s legal right to an abortion.
"We file this complaint to ensure that we are not vulnerable to severe sanctions, fines and
penalties, including potential license revocation, during this interim period," the plaintiffs said
in a statement. "Given the history of aggressive enforcement by the State against abortion
providers in the past, we have no choice but to take this matter to court."
The providers call the law "frivolous and medically unnecessary."
At the time of its passage, abortion foes called the new law a "vital piece of pro-life
legislation" that assured human life was treated with dignity.
Abortion rights advocates said it was another in a long string of recent Ohio laws aimed at making legal
abortions harder for women to get.
Those have included bans on telemedicine abortions; on dilation and evacuation, or D&E,
abortions; on abortions in cases where a fetal Down syndrome diagnosis is a factor; and on all abortions
after detection of the first fetal heartbeat, which can occur as early as six weeks into pregnancy
before many women know they are pregnant. Courts have blocked the latter three laws as constitutional
challenges proceed.
In Tuesday’s lawsuit, the clinics said unless the court grants their request to block the fetal tissue
law, they’ll be forced to begin turning patients away beginning April 6 — when the law is set to take
effect.
The measure replaces an earlier state law that required aborted fetuses to be disposed of "in a
humane manner," but did not define "humane." Remains from what are known as surgical, or
procedural, abortions fell under existing rules for handling infectious waste, meaning they could be
disposed of with material from other medical procedures.
The suit calls the law "a sea-change in how (clinics) manage tissue."
The clinics — including Planned Parenthood, Preterm-Cleveland, Women’s Med Group and Northeast Ohio
Women’s Center — told the court that rule-making cannot now legally happen in time for the law’s
effective date. The suit notes that it’s unclear whether elements of existing regulations on the
disposal of human bodies might apply under the new law, such as whether burial of fetal remains will
require a death certificate and burial permit.
The anti-abortion group that championed the new fetal remains protocol defended the law.
"Requiring the broken bodies of abortion victims to be humanely buried is simply common
decency," Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said in a statement. "The abortion
industry’s desire to deny the innocent unborn even the right to a proper burial reveals where their
allegiances lie: not with basic decency, but with their bottom line."
A form required under the new law has not yet been developed to record that each woman has been notified
and whether she’s chosen burial or cremation.
Yet, the lawsuit charges, Republican Attorney General Dave Yost has refused to give clinics assurances
they will not face misdemeanor penalties until that happens. His refusal is what prompted the
litigation, the lawsuit says.
Messages seeking comment were left with Yost’s spokesperson and the Ohio Department of Health.
Republican Gov. Ohio Mike DeWine signed the fetal tissue measure into law in December.
As state attorney general, he investigated allegations regarding Planned Parenthood’s treatment of fetal
remains in 2015. His report found no evidence of the illegal disposal that was alleged, but it
criticized the organization for disposing of fetal remains in landfills. Planned Parenthood called the
finding "inflammatory."