The recently approved House budget includes a provision to expand the Ohio Abortion Report and make its information available continuously, but abortion rights advocates are objecting.
State law requires physicians to use “prescribed forms” to report data about induced abortions to the Ohio Department of Health, which produces the report annually. The confidential forms include medical history and demographic details about the patient and the procedure.
However, a significant change codified in the House-passed version of House Bill 96 requires the department to develop a public electronic dashboard to publish the abortion data reported to the department every month.
“This is long overdue, and it should have been done a decade ago,” Statehouse News Bureau quoted Ohio Right to Life president Mike Gonidakis, adding that the report’s collected information is antiquated.
“Everything is still happening via paper, and when the abortion report comes out on Oct. 1 of every year, which the law requires, it’s for the previous year’s information,” Gonidakis added. “The 2024 numbers aren’t for 2024, they were for 2023. So the information is stale.”
The report provision already required hospitals to file monthly and annual reports listing the total number of women who have undergone a post-12-week-gestation abortion and received postabortion care.
However, the updated version would also mandate that the reports include the total number of Ohio residents and the total number of out-of-state residents who have undergone a post-12-week gestation abortion and received postabortion care.
It would also make the data about those receiving abortions much more granular, sorted by the recipient’s age and using multiple categories to delineate their age, such as under 16 years old, 16 to 17 years old and 18 to 24 years old.
“What this legislature is doing is forcing healthcare staff to comply with even more medically unnecessary regulations, meaning fewer appointments for patients,” Statehouse News Bureau quoted Jaime Miracle, deputy director of Abortion Forward, as saying. “No one wants to wait longer to see a doctor because they’re busy completing extra paperwork to satisfy some politician’s agenda in the Ohio legislature.”
The spending plan establishes “the policy of the state of Ohio to recognize two sexes, male and female,” according to the version of the bill lawmakers passed. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
According to the Statehouse News Bureau report, the budget also prohibits taxpayer dollars from going to youth shelters that promote or affirm gender transition and “mental health services that promote or affirm social gender transition.”
It also mandates libraries to keep materials related to sexual orientation or gender identity out of view of minors.
Critics have said the spending plan slashes funding for the Buckeye State’s libraries. However, an Ohio.news analysis found that the criticism was not as straightforward as suggested and that the budget effectively returns library funding to its pre-pandemic trajectory.
The budget now heads to the Ohio Senate, which can agree with or amend the House’s version. When including state and federal money, the spending plan totals about $202.7 billion over two years. It decreases from what Gov. Mike DeWine originally proposed in his executive budget but increases over previous budgets.
“This bill ... takes meaningful steps towards providing property tax relief to Ohioans while strengthening our schools and local governments,” state Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, said in a release. “By investing in our communities, Ohioans will have access to good jobs, world class arts and cultural institutions, and recreational opportunities in every corner of the state.”
The governor must sign the budget by June 30.
