COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Abortion providers want to challenge restrictions on medication abortion that they say violate Ohio’s new constitutional protections for access to the procedure.
Attorneys for several abortion clinics have asked a Hamilton County judge to allow them to add Issue 1 claims to an existing lawsuit targeting the state’s ban on telehealth medication abortions. In their proposal, filed May 9, the clinics argue that the recently-enshrined constitutional right to abortion and other reproductive healthcare precludes the state from enforcing the ban and other restrictions on medication abortion they say serve no medical purpose and unduly burden patients.
After clinics sued, Ohio’s 2021 ban on virtual appointments for medication abortions was blocked by a Hamilton County judge before it could go into effect. Under the ban, providers who offer telehealth medication abortion appointments can face felony charges and the loss of their medical license.
The clinics seek to add a new argument that the telehealth medication abortion ban should be struck down as unconstitutional: It violates the abortion rights amendment voters passed last November. The constitutional amendment prohibits bans on abortion before fetal viability, and any restrictions thereafter must serve to promote the health and safety of the pregnant person — as accepted by the medical community.
“Using telehealth to provide medication abortion allows patients to access care in their local community without having the burden of traveling long distances and/or taking additional time from their jobs and families to access the health care they need and deserve,” Dr. Sharon Liner, medical director of the Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, said in a news release.
The clinics want to challenge other restrictions on medication abortion they argue prevent patients from accessing care and contradict what the medical community has accepted as best practices. In their motion to file the amended complaint, clinics argue that state laws barring healthcare providers other than physicians from administering mifepristone and requiring them to strictly follow the FDA label for the drug do not promote patient health – and in fact, result in the delay of care.
State law bars otherwise qualified healthcare providers, including nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and physician assistants, from dispensing mifepristone, the drug most commonly used in medication abortions. The law means that while the FDA has approved some major pharmacies to begin filling mifepristone prescriptions, they cannot do so in Ohio. Clinics argue the restriction necessarily reduces the number of abortion providers in the state– meaning patients have to travel farther and wait longer to access abortion care.
Other state laws force providers to adhere to the FDA-approved protocol for mifepristone, which means it can only be used through 10 weeks gestation – or 70 days since the first day of a person’s last menstrual cycle. But research has shown mifepristone can be safely and effectively used to induce abortions through 11 or 12 weeks of gestation.
As the medical director of an abortion clinic said in an interview in March, many of Ohio’s abortion restrictions go beyond what the medical community accepts as necessary, including ultrasounds to confirm gestational age, restrictions on abortion pill prescriptions and the 24-hour, two-appointment waiting requirement -- which clinics challenged as unconstitutional in late March. They also diverge from most other regulations on health care in the state.
Off-label use of medications is incredibly common in medicine, the clinics note, arguing that restrictions on the use of mifepristone for abortion – when its use in other contexts isn’t restricted – amounts to discrimination against people seeking abortions.
“Unnecessary restrictions that ignore the expertise of medical professionals exacerbate the strain on patients and providers,” Liner said.
The state, represented by Attorney General Dave Yost, will have the opportunity to reply to clinics’ request to amend their original lawsuit before the judge decides whether to accept it.
