Although it is legal in Ohio for LGBTQ+ couples to adopt, some GOP legislators want the state law to only acknowledge the adoption rights of heterosexual couples.
A dispute over a single line in the 2,057-page state budget bill — passed by the Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday — has some civil rights advocates frustrated as they continue urging the enactment of an anti-discrimination law in this state.
Married LGBTQ+ couples have been allowed to adopt children in Ohio since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling legalized same-sex marriage across the country.
Ohio’s adoption law, last updated in 1996, states that “a husband and wife together” may adopt so long as one of them is an adult.
As part of his comprehensive budget plan, Gov. Mike DeWine proposed to update the language to instead read that any “legally married couple” can adopt.
Republican lawmakers rejected that change and opted to keep the “husband and wife” language in place.
House Finance Chairman Scott Oelslager said doing so carries no legal weight and that LGBTQ+ couples retain their right to adopt children.
“It’s a semantic issue. It does not prevent adoptions (for) same-sex couples,” the North Canton Republican said. “It’s just simply a semantic definition so to speak, or semantic statement that was in the code.
“It was just something some of our members wanted and part of my job as Finance Chairman, and the Speaker’s job, is to listen to our membership … our members feel strongly about it and that’s why we kept it in,” Oelslager continued.
Oelslager was asked by reporters on Thursday to identify the Republican lawmakers who requested the state adoption law keep its “husband and wife” wording. He declined to name them.
Later on Thursday, the Ohio Capital Journal obtained the budget amendment requests. Two Republican state representatives in particular asked that budget drafters strike the “legally married couple” reference and reinsert “husband and wife” — Reps. Reggie Stoltzfus, R-Paris Twp., and Derek Merrin, R-Monclova.
Both EqualityOhio and the ACLU of Ohio oppose this decision from the House Republicans.
“To uphold ‘husband and wife’ language in the budget plan is not only inaccurate, it’s also antiquated and exclusionary,” ACLU of Ohio executive director J. Bennett Guess said in a provided statement.
Guess said it is “essential that inclusive, equality-based definitions” be reflected in state law.
Dominic Detwiler, the public policy strategist for EqualityOhio, too said the organization would like to see the language updated.
More broadly, Detwiler said EqualityOhio is focused on the enactment of the Ohio Fairness Act — proposed legislation that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill would protect LGBTQ+ Ohioans from housing and job discrimination.
Lawmakers have worked toward passing this anti-discrimination legislation for two decades, though advocates are encouraged by the bill’s prospects this time around.
That’s partially due to the bipartisan support it has received in what is now the 10th attempt, as both the House and Senate versions are sponsored by a Republican and Democratic legislator. Every other Democrat in the Ohio General Assembly has signed on as a cosponsor, while three Republicans have done so.
“The momentum is building and I think everybody understands that protecting people from discrimination isn’t really a partisan issue,” Detwiler said.
There has yet to be a committee hearing on the Ohio Fairness Act, which is endorsed by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and other organizations.
Oelslager said Thursday that besides those supporting the legislation, there are also groups in Ohio that “push back very hard” against prohibiting LGBTQ+ discrimination.
“That’s the balance that we have to, the legislature would have to address here,” he said, adding there is not just “one side” to this issue. “Both sides are very sincere in their efforts.”
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Also from Ohio Capital Journal:
FDA lifts in-person medication abortion regulation
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted regulations on medication abortion drugs, the subject of an Ohio court challenge.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists had been advocating for the remove of an in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone, a two-drug treatment used in medication abortions.
The FDA recently halted enforcement of that dispensing requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic, which ACOG said is the agency “recognizing and responding to the available evidence.”
“Moreover, mifepristone itself has demonstrated, through both clinical study and decades of use, to be safe, effective medication,” said ACOG president Dr. Eva Chalas and CEO Dr. Maureen Phipps in a statement. “Requiring the medicine to be dispensed in person, then taken elsewhere at the patients’ discretion, is arbitrary and does nothing to bolster the safety of an already-safe medicine.”
The medicine is part of a constitutional challenge Ohio’s Planned Parenthood clinics and the ACLU have mounted against the state. READ MORE
Commentary: Increase support for child care in Ohio. This is a no-brainer.
When I talk to my friends who have children and they tell me how much child care costs, I cringe. Often the figures they throw out resemble the price tag of tuition.
According to Child Care Aware of America, the average price of center-based infant child care in Ohio is indeed nearly the same as the average annual tuition and fees at a public four-year college or university, costing $10,009 compared to $10,790. The cost of child care for an infant and a 4-year-old averages at $18,267 per year at a center.
A 2016 recommendation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said families shouldn’t spend more than 7% of their income on child care, but there’s no state in the country where parents can follow that recommendation, a 2018 analysis by Child Care Aware of America found.
In Ohio, the analysis shows single parents pay 43.8% of their income for center-based infant child care. Married parents of two children living at the poverty line pay 62.6% of their household income for center-based child care. Even a married couple with one infant in Ohio fail the 7% guideline, paying 11% at a center. Two children bumps it up to 20.1%. READ MORE
