Called the “Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act,” the bill proposes to extend the Ohio Revised Code’s “criminal and civil protections” to unborn fetuses.
The bill, hosted on End Abortion Ohio’s website, would “acknowledge the sanctity of innocent human life, created in the image of God, which should be equally protected from the beginning of biological development to natural death,” it reads.
Newman and Dean, both freshman legislators, did not immediately return requests for interviews Tuesday.
The legislative attempt comes a year and a half after 56.6% of Ohio voters agreed to amend the Ohio Constitution to protect abortion access in November 2023. That amendment, which supersedes the Ohio Revised Code, allows for abortions up to the point of fetal viability and exceptions thereafter when the mother’s life or health is at risk.
“Instead of lowering the cost of food or healthcare, Ohio Republicans are once again ignoring the will of the voters and making it even more difficult to start a family or make choices about your own body,” Ohio Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Clyde said in a Tuesday statement.
Newman, a longtime pastor, told this outlet during his initial campaign that curbing abortions would be a major priority of throughout his tenure.
“I think the passage of Issue 1 to put abortion into the constitution was the worst mistake Ohio ever made,” Newman said in October 2024. “And I realize it was the constituents who voted to do that — so that means my neighbors, my fellow Miami Countians and Ohioans did that.”
Newman, End Abortion Ohio and many anti-abortion advocates have argued that enshrining abortion access into a state’s constitution puts the state’s constitution in conflict with the Constitution of the United States, which says the state cannot “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
“At what point is the baby allowed to enjoy his or her constitutionally assured right to life or defending his or her life?” Newman asked rhetorically in the October 2024 interview with this outlet.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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