Ohio Judge Strikes Down last parts of Heartbeat Law
Ohio’s heartbeat law is officially dead.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins has struck down the last remaining provisions of Ohio’s 2019 Heartbeat Law, eliminating requirements that accompanied the state’s former ban on abortion once a baby’s heartbeat can be detected at 6 weeks.
In a decision filed Oct. 29, Jenkins permanently blocked the ancillary measures from Senate Bill 23. These included mandatory testing for fetal heartbeat, documentation and reporting of results to the Ohio Department of Health, requirements that physicians record whether a patient’s health motivated an abortion, and associated penalties such as professional discipline, fines, and potential criminal charges.
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Jenkins wrote that the six-week ban itself “has gone the way of the dodo” after Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment in November 2023 protecting abortion.
The state had already chosen not to defend the ban’s core restriction on appeal. He ruled that the remaining provisions “are of the same species as the Six-Week Ban and for that reason they cannot survive.”
“These measures were passed alongside the six-week ban to make it difficult, or impossible, to obtain abortion care in Ohio by placing providers at risk of criminal prosecution as well as professional and financial ruin,” the judge stated.
He added that the provisions “were enacted to enforce, document, and define the six-week ban” and that, without the ban, they cannot be read as the Legislature wrote them.
The Heartbeat Law, enacted in 2019, prohibited most abortions. It took effect following the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade but faced immediate court challenges. The 2023 voter-approved amendment, which passed with 57% support, shifted the legal landscape after millions of dollars came from out of state to defeat it.
A spokesman for Attorney General Andy Wilson said the office is reviewing the ruling and will consult with clients before deciding on any appeal. State officials had previously argued that the testing, reporting, and record-keeping requirements could operate independently of the six-week ban as regulations on medical practice.
