Ohio Senate advances bill that would ban dismemberment abortions

The Ohio Senate has advanced a legislation that would ban dismemberment abortions, a method that involves the use of steel instruments to extract the unborn baby from the womb in pieces.

The Senate voted 24–9 on Wednesday to approve the Dismemberment Abortion Ban (SB 145), which is sponsored by Senators Matt Huffman (R-Lima) and Steve Wilson (R-Maineville).

The measure would ban dismemberment abortions, also known as the dilation and evacuation procedure, which is typically performed in the second trimester.

Dismemberment has been defined in the bill as "with the purpose of causing the death of an unborn child, to dismember a living unborn child and extract the unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors, or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush, or grasp a portion of the unborn child's body to cut or rip it off."

The bill was passed by the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, and it is expected to go before the Ohio House this fall after the summer recess.

Life Site News noted that an estimated 3,000 abortions were performed in Ohio using the dilation and evacuation method. The same method is used in 95 percent of second-trimester abortions across the nation.

Jaime Miracle, a spokeswoman for NARAL Pro-choice Ohio, testified in the Senate hearing against the bill, claiming that the dismemberment abortion ban is unconstitutional and bad for the state.

The spokeswoman argued that the ban would leave doctors with limited second-trimester abortion options, adding that such options are not as safe.

The passage of the measure has been hailed by the Ohio Pro-life group Created Equal. "With the passage of this bill in the Ohio Senate, Ohio is now one step closer to ending this brutal method of murdering babies," said the group's national director, Mark Harrington.

Ohio Right to Life also applauded the Senate for advancing the legislation. Mike Gonidakis, the group's president, stated that the legislation is part of a larger pro-life national agenda.

"With as much as we've accomplished in the last six years, our dismemberment ban is arguably the most significant and groundbreaking legislation to date," he said.

According to Life News, the dismemberment abortion ban is based on model legislation from the National Right to Life Committee. The pro-life organization noted that eight states have passed laws banning dismemberment abortions since 2015.

Earlier this year, Texas became the latest state to enact the dismemberment abortion ban, joining Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.