PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2019-04-19 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Did an Ohio State Rep. Propose Exempting African-American Women from Abortion Restrictions? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • In April 2019, the Christian conservative television network CBN News reported that a Democratic member of the Ohio state House of Representatives had drafted a measure that would have excluded black babies from stringent new restrictions on abortion. On 16 April, the website published an article with the headline, Ohio Democrat Drafted Measure to Exclude Black Babies from Being Saved Under Pro-Life Law, which reported that: CBN News' article prompted several inquiries from readers about the veracity of the claim that Boyd had proposed excluding women and/or their children from the consequences of the legislation in question, on the basis of their race. Boyd did indeed propose an amendment that would have done just that, had it not been voted down in committee, and the core claim in the CBN News article was therefore accurate. On 12 February, Republican State Sen. Kristina Roegner introduced Senate Bill 23, which would in most cases prohibit abortions where a doctor finds evidence of a fetal heartbeat, an event that can happen relatively early in pregnancy, meaning the effect of the bill would be to ban a large proportion of abortions in the state of Ohio. The text of the bill stated: The Senate passed the legislation on 13 March, and the House of Representatives followed suit on 10 April. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill into law on 11 April. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had already vowed to challenge the law in federal court, asserting that it was a direct violation of the Constitution and a complete undermining of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that access to abortion was constitutionally protected under the Fourth Amendment right to privacy. During a House of Representatives Health Committee debate on 9 April, Boyd, the Democratic ranking member, proposed amending the legislation to effectively exclude African-American women from its restrictions and requirements, meaning doctors would not be obliged to test for a fetal heartbeat where the woman was African-American, and in such an instance, an abortion could take place even if a heartbeat was found. The title of the amendment was Exemption for African-American women and the text of the amendment read: Sec. 2919.1911. African-American women shall be exempt from the requirements in sections 2919.192 to 2919.196 of the Revised Code. In proposing her amendment, Boyd made somewhat unclear comparisons between the history of slavery in the United States and the abortion restrictions contained in Senate Bill 23. She appeared to compare the control exerted over black women during slavery with the enhanced restrictions on women's access to abortion contained in Senate Bill 23, calling for black women, in particular, to be exempted from those restrictions, in light of that history. We contacted Boyd's office for clarification, but we did not receive a response in time for publication. During the hearing, Boyd said: The House Health Committee rejected Boyd's amendment along party lines, with all 11 Republican members voting against it and all seven Democrats supporting it. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url