Attorneys challenge telemedicine abortion ban, other Ohio laws after voters passed Issue 1

Doctors should be allowed to prescribe abortion pills remotely because of voter-approved abortion protections, attorneys argued in a new court filing seeking to challenge several Ohio laws.

In 2021, Ohio enacted a law that banned abortion providers from meeting with their patients remotely via videoconferences, a practice called telemedicine. Doctors who violated the policy would face a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to a year and a half in prison. Abortion clinics sued, and a Hamilton County judge placed the law on hold indefinitely.

Now, attorneys representing the abortion clinics say they have more evidence that Ohioans don't want this law: a voter-approved constitutional amendment protecting access to reproductive rights.

"These arbitrary, medically unnecessary anti-abortion restrictions profoundly limit Ohioans’ ability to exercise their constitutional rights," said Jessie Hill, an attorney working with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. "We urge the court to strike them down."

They also challenged two other laws:

• a law that prevents advanced practice clinicians − such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives − from providing medication abortion.
• a law restricting when mifepristone, one-half of a widely-used two-drug regimen, can be used. Ohio law mirrors the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which approved mifepristone for use up to 70 days after the last menstrual period. Attorneys say research has demonstrated mifepristone can be used effectively and safely beyond that window.

Mifepristone was used in 48.5% of the 18,488 abortions performed in Ohio in 2022 and 97.2% of the medication abortions that occurred that year, according to Ohio Department of Health data.

Attorneys representing Ohio abortion clinics asked the Hamilton County judge to allow them to amend their lawsuit to challenge the additional laws. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican who opposed the constitutional amendment, will have an opportunity to respond.

We look forward to our Attorney General Dave Yost defending these common-sense laws," Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said. “It is absurd to believe that the voters of Ohio voted to eliminate all health and safety regulations for pregnant women. The ACLU searched for a sympathetic court to file this dangerous lawsuit."

Following Issue 1's passage in 2023, several lawsuits have challenged Ohio's ban on most abortions, a 24-hour waiting period and reporting requirements.

Read the complaint:

More:Ohioans approved protections for abortion rights. But most restrictions remain on the books

More:Ohio AG Yost: Voters didn't approve abortion rights measure to block 24-hour waiting period

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.