· July 25, 2013

A look at Ohio’s new abortion law and miscarriage

One topic we haven’t spent a lot of time covering is the impact of HB 59 on women who are experiencing a miscarriage. The so-called “informed consent” provision of the budget, added at the last minute, requires doctors to detect a fetal heartbeat prior to an abortion and redefined a medical emergency such that a women who is having a  miscarriage will have to wait 24 hours before her pregnancy can be terminated and her recovery can begin. The budget also requires doctors to inform a woman, based on general population statistics, of the likelihood her fetus could theoretically be carried to term. Clearly, these statistics are hardly helpful to a woman whose fetus has already been given a zero percent chance of living, as one woman’s story illustrates. Over at Plunderbund, one Ohio woman tells her family’s painful story of loss and tells us how this new law will affect women in her situation. It’s worth a read.