Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on an important case regarding pro-life laws in Indiana. Justice Clarence Thomas resoundingly defeated many pro-abortion arguments in his opinion, and pro-lifers across the country rejoiced as we see the Court take a strong stand against abortion-on-demand! 

“Given the potential for abortion to become a tool of eugenic manipulation, the court will soon need to confront the constitutionality of laws like Indiana’s,” – Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

The case specifically addressed Indiana’s law regarding disposal of fetal remains and overturned the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, allowing that portion of the law to go into effect. Ohio Right to Life has been working with Senator Joe Uecker on this legislation for the last two general assemblies. Currently, Ohio’s Unborn Child Dignity Act (SB 27) is waiting on hearings in the House, having already passed through the Senate. We are hopeful that this decision by the Court will dissuade Planned Parenthood and the ACLU from pursuing a frivolous lawsuit, and that the inherent dignity of every human life will be respected, even in death.

The Unborn Child Dignity Act simply strengthens Ohio’s informed consent law so that a woman has the option of choosing burial or cremation for her aborted unborn child. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may claim that a woman who has an abortion is not a mother, but the testimonies of countless women who have mourned their abortions decades after tell a different story.

The second part of the decision refused to grant certiorari to look at the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that did not allow the part of the law that prohibited abortions based on the race, sex, or disability of the unborn child to go into effect. The Court’s decision stated that it would not grant certiorari because “We follow our ordinary practice of denying petitions insofar as they raise legal issues that have not been considered by additional Courts of Appeals.”

Our Down Syndrome Non-Discrimination Act, passed in 2017, and challenged in 2018, will likely end up in the 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals. Should the 6^th Circuit uphold our Down syndrome legislation, that could be the impetus for the Supreme Court to take a look at the constitutionality of bans on discriminatory abortion. 

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a fantastic opinion, detailing the history of the eugenics movement in the United States and how the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger was intimately involved in furthering it. You can read that opinion here. We’re glad to see that Justice Thomas took a stand for the most at-risk of the vulnerable population. Babies are targeted in the womb for a host of reasons today, proving that the Eugenics Movement of the early 1900s never fully went away.

We will continue to keep you in the loop as it regards our own legislation, lawsuits regarding laws we have passed, and other important cases as they progress. The momentum in the pro-life movement right now is absolutely unprecedented! We won’t stop until the Ohio Abortion Report reads “Zero. Nothing to report.”