CINCINNATI — All eyes are on Gov. Mike DeWine's desk Monday night as he is expected to issue vetoes on the state budget passed by the state legislature last week.
The state operating budget includes tax cuts for the wealthy, stadium funding and changes to education. Another item included in the budget that has not been mentioned as a provision DeWine may veto is access to abortion information.
If not vetoed or changed by DeWine, monthly data of abortions performed across the state would be accessible on an online public dashboard.
According to the budget, information including age, race, marital status, ZIP code and number of previous pregnancies would be collected from patients receiving abortion care.
The budget states that the info "shall be confidential and shall not contain the woman's name," but some of the data will be available on the public dashboard.
That data includes:
- The number of abortions performed on Ohio residents, sorted by age
- The number performed on out-of-state residents, sorted by age
- The age of the woman on whom the abortion was performed
- The race and ethnicity of the woman on whom the abortion was performed
- The education level of the woman on whom the abortion was performed
- The marital status of the woman on whom the abortion was performed
- The number of living children of the woman on whom the abortion was performed
- The number of weeks of gestation of the woman at the time the abortion was performed
- The type of abortion procedure performed
- The number of zygotes, blastocytes, embryos, or fetuses previously aborted by the woman on whom the abortion was performed
- The type of facility in which the abortion was performed
- For Ohio residents, the county of residence of the woman on whom the abortion was performed
- The total number of abortions performed on minors by each facility in the categories of under 16 years of age and 16-17 years of age
The report will also include the number and type of abortion complications reported to the department, according to the budget. It also states that the department shall make available, on request, the number of abortions performed by ZIP code of residence.
Hear how the state budget could change Ohio's abortion reporting:
Lauren Blauvelt, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, said she does not understand why collecting and publishing the data is needed.
“Why is this data necessary? Why is it being tracked? And the only answers to those questions are political,” Blauvelt said.
Specifically, Blauvelt said ZIP code-level data can be dangerous and goes against patient privacy laws.
“A public dashboard where people can try and figure out who has had an abortion or not is completely unthinkable in the state of Ohio and in this country,” Blauvelt said. “And it should be line-item vetoed by the governor.”
The Ohio Department of Health already collects most of this data and releases it in a yearly report every October.
I reached out to the Ohio Department of Health to see if they could tell me exactly what was changing in Ohio’s abortion reporting process.
“The Ohio Department of Health cannot comment on any provisions in the state budget until the process is complete. Once that occurs, we will answer any questions you have as soon as we can," they responded in a statement.
To see the differences, I compared the Ohio Department of Health’s 2023 report and the state operating budget.
The differences I found were:
- Age will be updated to include minors. The current age category starts at under 18.
- The type of facility an abortion is performed, as well as how many minors are cared for at each facility, will be listed.
- The yearly report by the Department of Health will be published in March rather than October.
- A monthly-updated public dashboard does not currently exist.
Cincinnati Right to Life Executive Director Laura Strietmann told WCPO that they were a major proponent is the proposed changes.
"The preborn-child-execution-by-choice reporting mechanism in Ohio is archaic and overdue for an update," she said in a statement. "It is good news the budget is requiring a dashboard with real-time reporting of pre-born deaths in Ohio. The COVID pandemic daily reporting of deaths proves it is possible for the Ohio abortion industry to report real-time pre-born child death that takes place in the for-profit abortion facilities."
If approved by DeWine, physicians will have 15 days after a woman is discharged to submit an abortion report to the Department of Health. If they don’t submit the form within 15 days, they could face fines or other disciplinary action.
