CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish has announced four reproductive health proposals in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“Women will be hurt by this, and potentially die—a result of this ruling. Something has to be done,” he said. “What we can do is try to provide for health care for women to the maximum extent that we can and that’s what we are going to do.”
The county will propose a benefit to county employees assisting with transportation, lodging and other related costs for employees who choose an abortion, according to Budish.
He said the second proposal is to help residents of the county who are not employees but choose to have an abortion. It proposes the county offer financial grants to local and state organizations providing similar healthcare services, so they have access as well.
The third proposal is to offer additional grants to those local and state organizations to help with educational outreach for residents regarding abortion access in Ohio.
“Proposing that we fund education because, right now, no one understands what the rules are, and what can you do, what can’t you do, where can you go, and is abortion illegal? Is it illegal at certain times?” he said.
Lastly, he’s proposing that the county council pass a reproductive health nondiscrimination ordinance that would prohibit discrimination, termination or loss of public accommodation because of a reproductive healthcare decision.
Budish said he’s still working with the local and state organizations to finalize details of the suggestions before he proposes them to the council, but said it should be in the next couple of weeks.
