Ohio bill requiring legal statement prior to abortion treatment could sow mistrust, experts say
New Ohio legislation that would require doctors to read a legal statement before medication abortions telling patients they can sue them could create a new barrier to constitutionally protected abortion care, experts say.
The Republican-led Ohio Senate Bill 309 would require health care providers who prescribe drugs to induce an abortion to also provide a statement and written information to patients about their ability to sue their health care providers, before the drugs can be prescribed.
The statement included in the language of the bill would read that “the state of Ohio wants you to be aware that you and your family may hold the manufacturer, distributor, your health care provider and the health care facilities financially accountable” if the patients dies, is injured, or suffers complications.
Providers, facilities, and manufacturers would also be held liable for “debilitating side effects” such as rupture of unknown ectopic pregnancy or infection “if the provider doesn’t address the side effect,” or “if the medication fails to terminate the pregnancy which results in a failed abortion or requires surgical intervention.”
Doctors, researchers, and advocates alike say the bill could bring a chilling effect to the relationship between doctors and their patients.
“I think it could be really damaging to the physician-patient relationship,” said Dr. Tracy Griffith, and OB/GYN at University Hospitals and a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “It feels like it’s designed to produce mistrust.”
Griffith said she and other doctors are already trained to provide the risks of any medication they prescribe, and to have conversations about what’s best for the individual patient with whom they’re working.
The training extends to treatment of any complications that might arise, and always has, according to Griffith.
The new measure in the Ohio legislature wouldn’t address any supposed issues with the medication itself that anti-abortion groups and anti-abortion lawmakers bring up.
“This bill isn’t going to improve the safety of this medication, it’s not going to improve the medical advice I give them,” Griffith said.
“It’s going to scare providers away from providing the medicine or scare patients away from this option.”
Conducting a medication abortion before providing the statement of legal liability could result in lawsuits from the patients, the maternal grandparents if the patient was a minor or died during the procedure, and the “father of the unborn child, if the father is married to the woman” at the time of the medication abortion, according to the bill.
The pregnant person’s next of kin could also sue the providers, facilities, and drug manufacturers if the person dies “due to the abortion or a complication related to the abortion.”
Those suing due to the medication abortion could ask for three times the cost of the medication, along with “damages for injuries and loss.”
The fact that the legal liability is singularly targeted at medication abortion is a giant red flag for Griffith, in a state that has constitutional protections for abortion care but also has a Republican-majority legislature who has produced several bills to try to further regulate reproductive health care.
“There is no other field of medicine where we’re talking about potential criminalization of care,” Griffith said.
Anti-abortion lobby group Ohio Right to Life released a statement saying they approve of the bill.
“Women who are facing a difficult choice should be given all the information they need to make such a critical decision,” said Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Carrie Snyder, in a statement.
“It is our hope that more women will see the dangers of abortion pills and make the decision to choose life, for their baby and themselves.”
The medication abortion option has been proven to be a safe one, with studies showing very rare rates of serious medical problems, even when administered through telehealth.
The rates are comparable or safer than over-the-counter pain relievers.
A 2024 study published in the journal Nature Medicine found that, of more than 6,000 medication abortions obtained through telehealth studied in the research, 97.7% “were complete without subsequent known intervention or ongoing pregnancy after the initial treatment.”
The study also found that 99.8% of the medication abortions did not include “serious adverse events.”
A 2015 study in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology studied women in the California Medicaid program who had an abortion, and found less than 1% of patients sought emergency room care for an abortion-related complication after the procedure.
For medication abortion specifically, the study found a “major complication rate” of 0.16%.
In comparison, about 1% to 2% of users of pain relievers like Advil and Aleve “experienced a serious (gastrointestinal) complication during treatment,” according to a 2013 study.
Epidemiology professor Alison Norris has already spent time in the Statehouse providing data for lawmakers on bills that could directly and indirectly impact reproductive health care and abortion medication.
She is ready to do it again for the newest measure.
“Holding medical providers who offer abortion care to a different standard is illogical,” Norris told the Capital Journal.
The professor is also the co-principal investigator for the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network (OPEN), a group of professors and academic researchers throughout Ohio and other states specifically focused on researching abortion and contraception policy impacts.
“We know that when there are a large number of regulations, it creates an environment in which it’s hard, sometimes impossible, to provide the standard of care that we want to,” Norris said.
With a standard of care that already includes providing patients with the risks and benefits of treatment and the likelihood of complications, Norris said “creating a complicated legal milieu makes it harder for providers to provider their care in the very best way.”
Because the safety of medication abortion has been so scientifically proven, Norris said, it would be better if more and more providers were able to offer the care, rather than regulating the treatment in a way that discourages use.
“The evidence is that it’s common, it’s safe, it’s very acceptable for people,” Norris said. “There’s all kinds of people for whom that is the best care, and we should be reducing the barriers to excellent care.”
Clinics like Planned Parenthood in Ohio are, at this point, used to legislation that attempts to regulate around the constitutional amendment 57% of Ohioans approved in 2023, and they see this as yet another “political attack.”
“This is another example of lawmakers not listening to the constituents’ will,” said Lauren Blauvelt, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio.
“It demonstrates that these are not lawmakers who are invested in serving their communities … but their own interests.”
The new legislation has been referred to the Ohio Senate Health Committee, but has not yet had a hearing scheduled.
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