A 10-year-old girl who is six weeks and three days pregnant was denied an abortion after the Roe v. Wade decision was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last week.
Cincinnati reported that several groups filed a lawsuit to prevent the state law from taking effect on Wednesday, but the Ohio Supreme Court declined the emergency stay of the abortion ban on Friday, which means the ban can be upheld as the case is evaluated.
The six-week abortion ban in Ohio will stand as the law while the state Supreme court reviews and analyzes a lawsuit to reverse it. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated, "Ohioans are suffering in real-time, and we have not yet seen the worst of this health care crisis. All people deserve autonomy over their bodies and the power to make their own health care decisions."
Devastating news for victims of abuse
Dr. Katie McHugh, an independent obstetrician-gynecologist, has witnessed several requests from pregnant people in Kentucky and Ohio, where abortion cannot be easily accessed.
The 10-year-old girl who is a rape victim didn't have access to abortion in Ohio, forcing her to head west to Indiana. The girl's situation only demonstrates the tangible impacts of the high court's decision on patients seeking access to the medical procedure.
One of the child abuse doctors contacted Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indiana, to help the 10-year-old girl to undergo an abortion, Newsweek reported.
The abortion ban in Indiana has not yet taken effect, allowing the girl to go to Dr. Bernard for the procedure. Other personal information about the child's case was unknown due to her age. Dr. Bernard said it surely is hard to imagine that doctors will no longer be able to provide such care in just a few short weeks.
The lawsuit against the abortion ban
Despite other state lawsuits that have been argued since Roe v. Wade was reversed, the Ohio suit asserted that abortions under the Ohio Constitution are still protected.
According to Freda Levenson, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, this extrapolation prevents almost every pregnant person from accessing essential care and is unconstitutional under Ohio's state constitution, which includes wide and broad protection for individual liberties.
Similar lawsuits filed in states like Louisiana and Texas have resulted in abortion bans being blocked for the time being, which allows for abortions to be still performed in such states temporarily.
There are suits filed in most of the 13 states that triggered laws set to go into effect instantly or soon after Roe v. Wade was overturned, The Hill reported.
Such lawsuits argued that the bill has "decimated abortion access in Ohio."
Indiana could soon pass its own abortion law later this month as a special session has been scheduled for later in July, and the legislature is expected to touch on a ban on the medical procedure, WFYI reported.
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