Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region et al., v. Ohio Department of Health, et al.

The lawsuit initially challenged a ban on telehealth medication abortion, which remains blocked by the preliminary injunction entered by the court on April 20, 2021. The court already found in issuing a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the ban, that telehealth medication abortion services are “safe, effective health care” and a ban will delay and potentially preclude patients from accessing constitutionally protected abortion care.

Plaintiffs amended their complaint to include new claims under the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment, challenging a law that prevents advanced practice clinicians — such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and certified nurse midwives — from providing medication abortion, and a law that blocks providers from prescribing mifepristone — one of the two drugs most commonly used in a medication abortion — according to the best medical evidence, instead requiring them to follow the outdated drug labeling, which has the effect of restricting medication abortion use to 70 days or 10 weeks of pregnancy, despite extensive evidence that it can safely and effectively be used to terminate a pregnancy through at least 11 weeks. On August 29th, the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas granted a preliminary injunction, holding that these laws are likely unconstitutional under Ohio’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment. This decision was the second historic application of Ohio’s new Reproductive Freedom Amendment. The preliminary injunction will block state officials from enforcing these unconstitutional laws while the case continues on the merits.