While the pro-life cause suffered a major setback in Ohio when the Reproductive Freedom Amendment passed in 2023, Ohio lawmakers continue to pass legislation to protect the unborn.
The Ohio House of Representatives passed the Share the Health and Empower With Informed Notices Act, or the SHE WINS Act for short, on Wednesday by a party-line vote of 64 to 32. The informed consent bill was introduced in the Senate on Thursday.
This bill requires women to be informed of alternatives to abortion, as well as the risks associated with the procedure and of carrying her pregnancy to term. The bill also requires a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion.
Under the bill, a woman is to be informed of medical assistance benefits, as well as how she may withhold or withdraw her consent of the abortion at any time. A woman must freely consent to the abortion without coercion.
There’s also a provision about medication abortion reversal, with the bill noting “that time is of the essence.”
A major focus of the bill for both supporters and opponents is the 24-hour waiting period.
“For a decision as monumental as abortion, a time of reflection first is the least we can ask,” Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Carrie Snyder said.
“Ensuring patients receive details of a major procedure with time to process the information before the procedure occurs is certainly a standard of care practiced in other areas of medicine,” she added.
Nan Whaley, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, claimed the SHE WINS Act would be a “burdensome 24-hour roadblock” for women seeking abortion in a statement shared with The Daily Signal.
While the bill’s critics claim the legislation is burdensome, supporters suggest the bill simply holds the abortion industry to the same standard as others in the medical community.
In a statement for The Daily Signal, Republican Ohio state Rep. Josh Williams explained it’s about “ensuring abortions are held to the same clinical standards as other medical procedures.”
“We should provide all patients considering undergoing any medical procedure with all the information necessary to establish informed consent, including abortion procedures,” Williams added.
Center for Christian Virtue Senior Fellow Peter Range told The Daily Signal that the SHE WINS Act is “a commonsense bill for women’s health.”
“All it requires is that elective abortions meet the same informed consent standards applied to other forms of medical care, Range said. “The bill ensures that any mother has access to all necessary information, including the risks, before making a final decision about abortion.”
“It’s beyond me why anyone who cares about women’s health would oppose this,” Range added.
Supporters of the bill also believe that, if signed into law, it would not be struck down in the courts because of the Reproductive Freedom Amendment.
“The issue 1 constitutional amendment that passed in Ohio says that a state interest is compelling if it is for the limited purpose of protecting the health of the individual seeking care and is consistent with accepted clinical standards,” Williams explained.
This “bill does exactly that,” Williams claimed.
Range was similarly confident. “This legislation should withstand any court challenges because it doesn’t affect any provisions of the abortion amendment passed here in Ohio,” he explained. “This bill focuses on women’s health and safety, so it should receive broad support.”
Whaley’s statement, meanwhile, claimed “the right to an abortion is protected by the Ohio Constitution,” and argued that a prior bill similar to the SHE WINS Act was ruled unconstitutional in 2024.
“Continuing to push these medically unnecessary restrictions is a waste of time and taxpayer funds and directly contradicts the will of the voters,” Whaley claimed.
In addition to the 24-hour waiting period, the bill includes provisions such as women being informed of the abortion procedure being used as well as abortion alternatives.
Whaley also took issue with the abortion reversal provision, which she described as an “an unproven and unethical procedure that goes against the current American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) standards and ultimately compromises patient safety.”
“Ultimately, the court battles will land in the Ohio Supreme Court, where we await their interpretation of the amendment,” Snyder told The Daily Signal. “In the meantime, our legislators care deeply about women and babies in Ohio and are doing their best to make sure that at the very least, women have solid information and time to process it.”