By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Even before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June reproductive freedom advocates were in action spelling out what to do when the anticipate decision was handed down.
Then on June 24, they had to spring into action.
Protests began.
Hannah Servidio, of Pro-Choice Ohio, said Thursday an educational session proceeding a rally on the BGSU campus because Ohio did not have a trigger law that put restrictions into place as soon as the Supreme Court ruled. Those had been proposed, but had yet to pass the legislature and be signed by Gov. Mike DeWine.
It so-called six-week abortion ban was tied up in the courts.
Then Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost successfully petitioned the court to lift the stay, and at 6 p.m. that day the six-week ban was in place.
Abortion clinic personnel started calling patients who were scheduled to have abortions the next day that they may not be able to have the procedure done.
The implementation of that law, however, has been put on hold based on a ruling in Hamilton County. But that stay is temporary, though clinics and the ACLU are trying to make it indefinite.
So abortions continue in Ohio’s nine clinics for now, Servidio said.
But that future is clouded.
Even beyond the complications posed by the government, those seeking abortions face a host of obstacles – finding child care, getting time off work, paying for the procedure, transportation.
On Thursday BGSU Student Democrats and the community group Persist rallied to get supporters of legalized abortion to take another kind of action voting.
The rally began with Servidio’s refresher on where things stand in Ohio.
She noted to start that everyone in the room likely has had an abortion or “loves someone” who has had one.
“Abortion is a real medical procedure, a real aspect of reproductive care” that people seek every day, she said. Banning it would have real consequences for women facing a range of health issues, including ectopic pregnancies.
Rallies like the one at BGSU are necessary, she said.
It’s important, she said, to have conversations about abortion, and reproduction health and “what it’s like to live in a state like Ohio underneath the foot of the legislature that we currently have.”
BG City Councilman Nick Rubando said that he is trying to ease some of the burdens by amending the city’s human rights ordinance to help protect women’s reproductive rights. If the resolution, which he plans to introduce in October, passes, for example, a woman would not have to worry about getting fired for taking time off to get an abortion.
After the educational session, about 150 people gathered outside the Bowen Thompson Student Union for a rally and a brief march through campus.
Jan Materni, candidate for State representative in District 3, said that women make up 51 percent of the electorate and now is the time for their voices to be heard.
Emily Gerome, the vice president of the BGSU Democrats, urged students to register to vote in Bowling Green, and encouraged those registered to help get other students sign up to vote.
The 150 participants stepped off heading toward Jerome Library chanting “abortion is a right, we won’t give up the fight.”
Nearby about 15 antiabortion demonstrators stood silently. The two groups did not interact. That was by design.
Servidio cautioned those rallying note to engage with people just trying to bait them, and to disengage if they felt uncomfortable.
Allison Stump, Students for Life coordinator for Catholic Charities, said the counter protestors were there as “peaceful, joyful witnesses to what it mean to be pro-life.”
They were not there to engage in conversations. They have those in other settings.
When asked about the slogan bans off our bodies, she said, there are “two bodies involved, and each body has a unique dignity as human beings.”
She claimed: “We understand from basic biology that the preborn are humans, and they deserve equal protection under the law.”
Servidio warned that the forthcoming lame duck legislative session could be “toxic,” and vote to grant personhood to a fertilized egg.
