News & Commentary

We sat down with our Cooperating Attorney and nationally recognized reproductive rights expert, Jessie Hill, to discuss the state of abortion and reproductive rights in Ohio and the U.S.

The ACLU of Ohio staff, board, and volunteers are nowhere near putting our feet up in 2021

The close of the 133rd Ohio General Assembly (OGA) is rapidly approaching. We are in the final stretch of lame duck, a time between the general election and the end of the year when a new legislative session starts. Ohio legislators hurry to wrap up whatever unfinished business they have from the past two years. Mindful of the ticking clock, lawmakers try to push priority bills across the finish line. They also use the rushed process to introduce new, and often extreme, legislation in hopes that it will pass in the midst of the commotion. For that, lame duck is always chaotic. This year is no exception. And in addition to the typical lame duck legislative shenanigans, we are in a global pandemic and Senate and House leadership refuse to allow virtual testimony in any committees at the Ohio Statehouse! This is of course frustrating because it limits access to the hearing process, but more importantly it’s an incredibly irresponsible and dangerous decision as the number of positive cases within the walls of the Statehouse continues to rise.

It’s been over five years since the city of Cleveland entered into a settlement agreement with the (DOJ, mandating that Cleveland make specific, compressive reforms to its police department. Yet, here we are at the end of 2020, and there is still much work to be done.

SB 260 criminalizes prescribing drugs via telemedicine that induce abortion.

The ACLU of Ohio opposes HB 796 because of the likely effect expanding Ohio's "Stand Your Ground" law, as found in this legislation, will have on black and brown people throughout the state.

Despite broad consensus that Cuyahoga County’s bail system is in desperate need of reform, early bit of momentum from elected officials fizzled in 2020. Aside from pilot pretrial program at the Cleveland municipal level in which Judge Michelle Earley integrated call and text reminders of court dates and no jail time for the majority of low-level, non-violent offenses, little progress was made. With more than 60% of the felony charges in the common pleas court fed from the other 13 municipalities, the lack of county-wide solutions or meaningful coordination by county stakeholders means the cash bail system continues to deprive thousands of residents of freedom well before their court date.

Saturday, December 5th, 2020 marks International Volunteer Day (IVD).

In short, the ACLU of Ohio opposes SB 27 because it serves no legitimate medical purpose and is an obvious attempt to inconvenience patients, shut down abortion providers, and imprison doctors who do not comply with the numerous nonsensical regulations found in this bill.