As I
mentioned the other day, I intended to testify against Ohio's total abortion ban (
HB 288), an evil piece of legislation that goes farther than South Dakota's. I arrived yesterday morning at the Health Committee hearing room along with several hundred pro-choice supporters. We definitely dominated the hearing room as well as the overflow space in the Statehouse Atrium.
Chairman White explained the groundrules. After hearing Rep. Brinkman offer his sponsor testimony, there would be two panels of supporters testifying (a total of nine people selected by the organizations supporting the ban),then a brief lunch break. After lunch, there would be two panels of opponents (again, nine people), followed by public testimony.
(More below, including links to newspaper coverage)
Columbus Dispatch (Subscription only)
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Associated Press
In the interests of time, Chairman White explained, public testimony would be limited to 3 minutes and Representatives were asked to limit themselves to two questions each.
Then the panels began. The bill's supporters offered horrifying tales of their abortion experiences and post-abortion trauma, along with condescending medical and religious testimony about how, of course, life begins at conception, and why HB 228 was good and necessary. (With rare exception, those of us on the pro-choice side managed to swallow our appalled disgust at the misinformation being spewed and remained quiet.)
After lunch, the opponent panels commenced. These included equally horrifying tales about pre-Roe abortions, the medical necessity of some abortions, and powerful testimony from clergy who pointed out that there is by no means consensus in the religious community about when life begins. (Kudos to the rabbi who noted that Jewish faith and tradition explicitly says human life begins at birth.)
After the panels, we began the public testimony (or so we thought). Denise Mackura of Ohio Right-to-Life gave an endless and completely incoherent statement about HB 228, a bill on which her organization has officially taken no position!?
Following Mackura, Chairman White announced that because of the late hour (it was almost 5:00) and because there were some 60 witnesses scheduled to testify, the Health Committee would go ahead and hear...no one else. End of session!
Yup, that's right. End of hearing. No more testimony. No assurances that our written testimony would be read by anyone or distributed to the Committee members later. Nothing. Never mind that a lot of us had worked very hard writing our testimony, trimming it down to just three minutes, and preparing 30 copies as per instructions. Never mind that folks had come from all over the state, some even driving in the night before and staying over in Columbus at a hotel so they could testify.
Nothing!
The good news is that I think we made our point. We certainly mobilized our side and made our presence known.
The better news is that HB 228 doesn't appear to be going anywhere now. There don't appear to be any plans to resurrect it for an actual vote.
The bad news is that there is work going on behind the scenes on a compromise bill that will be more palatable. (Some of the most ardent anti-choicers are even opposed to HB 228 as written because it is written so poorly as to strike out all of Ohio's current anti-abortion laws and replace them with an outright ban. This baby-with-the-bathwater approach means that current restrictions like parental notification and the so-called "partial birth abortion" could disappear. Dang.)
Worst of all, there's still no assurance that a total abortion ban won't reappear in the fall during the lame duck session.