Preterm-Cleveland v. David Yost

After hearing oral argument on October 7, 2022, the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas granted the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction against SB 23, temporarily blocking the State from enforcing the ban while the case continued. Then, on October 24, 2024, following final briefing on the merits, the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas issued a final order holding the vast majority of SB 23—including its six-week ban—to be unconstitutional, and permanently enjoining its enforcement. This marks the first permanent injunction stemming from Ohio’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment, which took effect in December 2023. This is also the first permanent injunction throughout the country of an abortion ban following the passage of a pro-abortion rights ballot amendment. The reproductive rights organizations and WilmerHale filed the lawsuit on behalf of Preterm-Cleveland, Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, Women’s Med Group Professional Corporation, Northeast Ohio Women’s Center d/b/a Toledo Women’s Center, and Dr. Sharon Liner, an individual abortion provider, to protect the right to abortion in Ohio under the Ohio Constitution.

Banning abortion for women and anyone that needs abortion care disproportionately harms people of color, those struggling to make ends meet, young people, rural residents, immigrants, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ communities. If abortion is banned in Ohio, Black women and other people of color will bear the brunt of the harm it inflicts. These communities already face a severe maternal mortality crisis that is worse in states that ban abortion.