Ohio
Ohio AG to appeal ruling that struck down state’s six-week abortion ban
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, is appealing a county judge’s ruling temporarily striking down the state’s six-week abortion ban.
On Friday, Yost filed a notice of appeal with the court after Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins ruled Ohio’s so-called heartbeat law was unconstitutional under an amendment that enshrines reproductive rights, which Ohio voters passed last year.
Yost’s office said there are provisions in the 2019 heartbeat law that aren’t addressed in the constitutional amendment, known as Issue 1.
“It is up to the courts to determine how conflicts between those two documents are resolved,” said Yost spokesperson Bethany McCorkle.
The law bans most abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected, hence the heartbeat nickname. Cardiac activity can be detected as early as six weeks into pregnancy, which is before many women even know they’re pregnant, according to Planned Parenthood.
Photo by Justin Merriman/Getty Images
What Did Judge Jenkins Say in His Ruling?
Judge Jenkins wrote in his ruling from October, “Despite the adoption of a broad and strongly worded constitutional amendment, in this case and others, the State of Ohio seeks not to uphold the constituional protection of abortion rights, but to diminish and limit it.”
He was referring to Issue 1 which gives every Ohioan “the right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions.”
Jenkins said in October that when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 and left abortion up to the states to decide, “Ohio’s Attorney General evidently didn’t get the memo.”
AG Yost Tries to Keep Part of Heartbeat Law
Yost acknowledged in court documents this spring that Issue 1 made Ohio’s abortion ban unconstitutional but tried to maintain other elements of the law, including certain notification and reporting aspects.
Those elements would have subjected physicians who perform abortions to felony criminal charges, fines, license suspensions or revocations and civil claims of wrongful death. They would have also required patients to make two in-person visits to their healthcare provider, wait 24 hours for an abortion and have that abortion recorded and reported.
Jenkins said in October Yost’s request to leave all but one provision of the law untouched even after the passage of an amendment protecting the right to abortion before the fetus is viable “dispels the myth” that the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling simply gives states power over the issue.
Years-Long Legal Battle
Jenkins’ October ruling was part of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the law firm WilmerHale on behalf of a group of Ohio abortion providers. It is the second round of litigation challenging the abortion ban.
An initial lawsuit was brought in federal court in 2019, where the ban was first blocked under Roe v. Wade. After the 1973 landmark decision was overturned, Ohio’s ban was briefly allowed to go into effect.
Enforcement of the ban was then again paused by the state court system with opponents arguing it violated protections in Ohio’s constitution guaranteeing individual liberty and equal protection. Challengers of the ban also claimed it was unconstitutionally vague.
Newsweek reached out to the ACLU of Ohio via email late Wednesday afternoon for comment on Yost’s recent filing.
When Jenkins handed down his decision, Jessie Hill, cooperating attorney for the ACLU of Ohio, called it “a momentous ruling, showing the power of Ohio’s new Reproductive Freedom Amendment in practice.”
“The six-week ban is blatantly unconstitutional and has no place in our law,” she said in October.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
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It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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