COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Republican lawmakers are planning to introduce a bill that would completely ban and criminalize abortion, IVF and some forms of contraception.
Anti-abortion advocate Austin Beigel, who works for End Abortion Ohio, told News 5 exclusively that new legislation is about to be introduced to overturn the state's 2023 constitutional amendment to protect access to abortion, fertility treatments, contraception, miscarriage care and the decision to continue a pregnancy.
"All it does is simply identify the preborn human being as a person under the law," Beigel said.
This is an effort we have been following through on for years, as Biegel has pushed legislators to introduce his bill. He is working with Republican state Reps. Levi Dean (R-Xenia) and Jonathan Newman (R-Troy) on a total abortion ban using the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause to supersede Ohio’s constitutional amendment.
Dean, a plumber, and Newman, a pastor, are both freshman lawmakers.
Beigel says they have several other cosponsors.
"We are currently denying human beings of their personhood of the equal protection of the law," Beigel said.
He believes the Constitution would designate life at conception. The legislation, one that doesn't have a number asigned to it yet, would ban all forms of abortion, regardless of rape or incest. It would outlaw IVF and some forms of contraception like IUDs. If passed, women who have abortions would be charged with homicide.
The only exception would be if there was an immediate life-saving emergency or if there was a spontaneous miscarriage.
As we have covered this effort through the years, nonpartisan legal experts have cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 14th Amendment being used to outlaw abortion.
RELATED: This bill likely isn’t conceivable in the GOP-controlled legislature
"Would this be going against the will of the voters?" I asked Beigel.
"It goes against the majority opinion of the people of Ohio, and that is something that we are proud of, because there have been many times in our country's history where the people have asked for something evil — slavery was once legal in this country," he said.
Impact
This legislation is "devastating," Beth Long said.
Trying for years, Beth and Kyle Long’s dreams came true after a successful round of IVF.
"We did the scans, and she had a strong heartbeat," she said. "Everything was great."
But it was short-lived.
Their daughter Star had a rare birth defect called limb body wall complex, and doctors told Long that her daughter wouldn’t survive. Plus, she would be in danger.
"I didn't want her to be born and feel pain, and abortion was a mercy to her," she said through tears. "She never felt pain because we were able to access that care. I was able to live because I had access to that care."
She likely would have "bled out," or had to have an emergency hysterectomy, she said, citing her doctor. In the worst case, she could have died if there was one mistake, she said.
It took her three weeks to find affordable services. She works in a public hospital, so the state wouldn't allow for her insurance to cover the procedure. In Ohio, to have her husband present at the appointment, an abortion would have cost $25,000.
So the family drove to Pennsylvania to get an abortion in 2023.
"The amount of suffering that we put people who are pregnant, who don't want to be pregnant or can't be pregnant anymore, through is just despicable," she said.
Months later, 57% of Ohioans voted to enshrine abortion access into the state constitution, ensuring that families like Long’s could get the care they needed.
Long said that this bill is clearly unconstitutional, and that pro-family is pro-health care choices. Following Long's abortion, she was able to conceive through IVF again. She had baby Felix in 2024.
"Do you fear that you wouldn't have Felix if you hadn't gotten your abortion?" I asked her.
"I'm pretty confident I would not have Felix," she said, tearing up. "It's making me physically feel the same way that I did in 2023 when I was in that situation."
The bill will be heard in the upcoming months by the Republican controlled legislature.
Beigel hopes lawsuits surrounding the legislation will reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
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