The Bill
On April 28, 2005 Representative Tom Brinkman (Republican - District 34) and 17 co-sponsors introduced HB 228 in the Ohio House.
The purpose of this bill is to prohibit abortions in this state, to increase the penalties for the offenses of unlawful abortion, unlawful distribution of an abortion-inducing drug, and abortion trafficking, to enact the offense of facilitating an abortion, and to make conforming changes in related provisions.
The bill would prohibit all abortions regardless of the reason. It would penalize abortion providers, but not pregnant mothers.
You can read the full text of the bill at the Ohio General Assembly website. (Note: The crossed-out text is text that will be removed from the Ohio Revised Code and the underlined text is text that will be added to the Ohio Revised Code.)
The co-sponsors of the bill are Representatives Hood, Buehrer, Bubp, Faber, Fessler, Gilb, Hoops, Kearns, Raussen, Reidelbach, Schaffer, Schneider, Seaver, Taylor, Uecker, Wagner, and Widowfield. It needs a simple majority of 50 votes to pass in the House.
Full Text
Status Report
Health Committee
Health Committee Members
14 Republicans (7 co-sponsors)
8 Democrats (0 co-sponsors)
Total 22 Members (7 co-sponsors)
(* = co-sponsor)
REPUBLICANS
John R. White (Chair) - District 38
* James T. Raussen (Vice Chair) - District 28
Courtney Eric Combs - District 54
* Diana M. Fessler - District 79
Geoffrey Smith - District 24
* James M. Hoops - District 75
Earl J. Martin - District 57
John M. Peterson - District 2
Ross McGregor - District 72
* Linda Reidelbach - District 21
* Michelle G. Schneider - District 35
* Derrick Seaver - District 78
Shawn N. Webster - District 53
* John Widowfield - District 42
* Larry Flowers - District 19
DEMOCRATS
Shirley Smith (Ranking Minority Member) - District 10
Catherine L. Barrett - District 32
Joyce Beatty - District 27
Edna Brown - District 48
Michael DeBose - District 12
Sandra Stabile Harwood - District 65
Lance Mason - District 8
Robert J. Otterman - District 45
Our current battle is to get the bill passed out of the Health Committee so that it can be considered by the full House.
In order to become law, the bill must be passed by both the House and the Senate and be signed by the governor (or receive a veto-proof supermajority of 2/3 in both the House and the Senate). To override a veto, the bill would need 66 votes in the House and 22 votes in the Senate.
We need to pressure the state Senate to introduce a companion bill. You may contact your state Senator here. Click here for a sample message.
The 126th General Assembly will end on December 31, 2006.