Ohio Senate OKs abortion ban after 20 weeks

[The Straight Story]

Ohio took another step toward outlawing late-term abortions with yesterday's Senate approval of a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy if a doctor determines that the fetus could live outside the womb.

The 24-8 vote was the latest in a series of actions this year on abortion-related bills in the Republican-controlled legislature.

Using an example of a baby born at 24 weeks where doctors fight to save the child versus a fetus that is aborted after the same point in the pregnancy, Sen. Peggy Lehner, the bill sponsor, asked, "What kind of schizophrenic society allows choice to be the only difference in the lives of these two babies?"

The Kettering Republican also wanted to know: "Isn't there some point during pregnancy where reasonable people can agree that abortion can no longer be an option?"

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/04/07/copy/senate-oks-abortion-ban-after-20-weeks.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

[yourout]

1. How would this be legal?

I thought the federal law was pretty cut and dried.

[cali]

3. here. from wiki

Roe established a "trimester" system of increasing state interest in the life of the fetus corresponding to the fetus's increasing "viability" (likelihood of survival outside the uterus) over the course of a pregnancy, such that states were prohibited from banning abortion early in pregnancy but allowed to impose increasing restrictions or outright bans later in pregnancy. That decision was modified by the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld the "central holding" in Roe that there is a fundamental right to privacy encompassing the decision about abortion, but replacing the trimester system with the point of fetal viability (whenever it may occur) as defining a state's right to override the woman's autonomy. Casey also lowered the legal standard to which states would be held in justifying restrictions imposed on a woman's rights; Roe had held this to be "strict scrutiny" - the traditional Supreme Court test for impositions upon fundamental Constitutional rights - whereas Casey created a new standard referring to "undue burden", specifically to balance the state's and the woman's interests in the case of abortion.

[zbdent]

2. so, what is already illegal is now more illegaler???

(to use a W-style malapropism ...)

20 weeks ... that's about two months after the first trimester ended ...

[LeftinOH]

4. This is stuff which Republicans are obsessing about in Ohio.. to hell with

our infrastrucure, public education, etc. Dickering around with already-existing abortion laws isn't accomplishing anything for the people of Ohio -except to satisfy a noisy portion of their base. It would be nice to see a Dem stand up to them and ask them what they can do for the 11.5 million Ohioans who are already here.

[peace13]

6. Our Tea Bagger Gov prepares to hijack state profits on liquor into his own private company...

lets public schools choke while feeding the charter schools and takes a giant dump on the organized workers across the state. I am waiting for the people in my community to wake up to the damage that is being done here but so far they are quietly taking the abuse from this monster that they elected. Very sad day for Ohio. The past 12 years have been very hard in this state and I would have told you four years ago that it couldn't get worse. Silly me. Our voter base is just too stupid. As long as they have their Bibles and guns and we don't check their cars for emissions they have no worries!

[Dogtown]

5. K&R n/t