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U.S. District Judge Blocks Part of Ohio Abortion Law

photo of abortion protesters at the Statehouse
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
An abortion law signed by former Gov. Kasich has been temporarily blocked by a U.S. district judge.

At the end of last year, former Gov. John Kasich signed a bill into law that bans a surgical procedure most commonly used in second trimester abortions. Now a federal court is blocking part of that new law from going into effect. 

U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett has ruled the state cannot fully enforce the new law that bans dilation and extraction, the common method of abortion used about 15 weeks of pregnancy and beyond.

In his ruling, Barrett said the state cannot enforce the law against doctors who perform the procedure on a woman who is less than 18 weeks pregnant.

At that point, Barrett says part of the new law that requires doctors to take an action to cause fetal demise before conducting the procedure can be applied in certain circumstances.

The ruling is only temporary right now until a trial over the new law is heard in a few months.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.