A notorious fight for abortion rights

At six weeks, a pregnancy probably resembles a miniature jellyfish or a yogurt past its due date more than a human.

Many people do not even know that they are pregnant at six weeks

At about six weeks cardiac activity can be detected making abortion illegal in Ohio under Ohio Senate Bill 23, also known as a “heartbeat bill,” passed by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019. Until 2022, Roe v. Wade blocked SB 23. But when the Supreme Court overturned Roe on June 24 the so-called “heartbeat bill” was triggered into legislation.

Against these regulations, grassroots movements are rising in the liberal college town of Athens. One group is fighting for abortion rights is Athenians for Bodily Autonomy (ABA).

“I never thought that this would be a fight I would find myself in,” Ari Faber, a member of ABA and the operations manager at United Campus Ministry Center said. “Just the fact that we’re having to fight for basic reproductive health care again, like it’s the 1960s. Mind-boggling.”

When it was decided in 1973, Roe established a constitutional right for Americans to get an abortion and permitted abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. 

After the Dobbs decision in June, the right to get an abortion is dependent on individual states. In Ohio, abortion rights are a highly debated topic, and the final decision on abortion rights in Ohio is not yet fixed.

Christian Jenkins, Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas judge, put a hold on the abortion ban through a preliminary injunction in October. That decision restored the right to get an abortion up to 21 weeks and six days after a woman’s last menstrual period.

However, abortion rights continue to be highly contested in Ohio, and for abortion rights activists blocking the ban is no more than a band aid. 

Abortion clinics in Ohio are sparse, there are only a few clinics in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo that still offer the procedure.

“To be told by the state that you can either go to prison or bear children at every opportunity is a form of violence, it’s a form of abuse and terrorism,” Louise Stewart, co-founder of ABA and a doctoral student of English and creative writing at Ohio University, said.

ABA was founded in the summer of 2022, when a draft of the Dobbs decision was leaked. Stewart wanted to organize a protest and reached out to Ohio U professors from the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies department, who told her about another protest in the making. Stewart connected with the other organizers, thus the ABA was born.

ABA focuses on abortion rights because it is “the most high stakes right now,” according to Stewart. Notably, the group gathered resources on abortion access and brought a resolution forward to Athens City Council in August, proposing to make Athens a “sanctuary city” for abortion rights.

A sanctuary city is a safe haven with laws that provide special protection. In regard to Athens and abortions that means that abortions wont be prosecuted.

ABA members have since spoken three times during council meetings and worked with Councilmember Sarah Grace on a resolution. Throughout the drafting process, the resolution was discussed, celebrated and criticized by ABA members and other Athenians.

“These guys, they want to write a letter that says that this is how we feel about something,” Sara Quoia Bryant, an ABA member and Athenian active with the Ohio Community Rights Network, said after a council meeting on Nov. 14 about Athens City Council.

Bryant, along with other ABA members, said that a resolution is not enough to secure reproductive rights in Athens.

“I came to speak to council because health care and reproductive rights for women are important to me,” Bryant said. “We want to do something that is going to have a little bit of teeth, you know, that could stand up to the law.”

Under SB 23, abortion is treated as a felony, a crime charged by county prosecutors. 

“The city does not have the authority to say that some state laws do not apply here. We are in the state of Ohio,” Grace said during the Nov. 14 council meeting. “What you are asking of us is not something we have the authority to do.” 

Athens City Council passed the resolution on Nov. 21 without further changes or opposing votes. During the meeting, Athens Mayor Steve Patterson said that he would sign the resolution immediately. 

The resolution has little power, so ABA and other movements fighting for abortion rights have continued their advocacy work. Without official policies in place, Athens’ businesses have begun to offer resources.

For example, Import House on North Court Street offers information on Plan B and C on its counter, and customers can also ask for Plan B pills in store. Plan B pills are also known as morning after pills and can be used directly after having unprotected sex while Plan C pills work as contraceptives and perform abortions even after a longer period of time.

Village Bakery, located on East State Street, chose a more discrete way. On a bookshelf, next to other resources on climate change, anti-racism and community rights activism, is a sign with information on Plan B. To get Plan B, customers can tell the cashier that they need to pick up a special order for Ruth, a tribute to the late Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“At Village Bakery, we definitely pride ourselves in being kind of a center for activism,” Village Bakery employee Anna Campbell said. “My bosses, Bob and Christine, say they’re educators first and business owners second.”

Providing emergency contraceptives, like Plan B, has also been put on the agenda of local activist groups like Abortion Access Now.

Loraine McCosker, an Abortion Access Now member and professor of environmental studies at Ohio U, said that one of her fellow activists has access to Plan B pills and that the group has given them to local businesses, such as Athena Cinema, Casa Nueva and Little Fish.

ABA has been working on a map where Athenians can find businesses that offer Plan B, Faber said.

Financial issues have also restricted access to emergency contraception, health care and abortions. Planned Parenthood estimates the costs for an abortion procedure to be about $750. CVS offers Plan B pills for $30 and $50.

However, Athenians can only access these free opportunities if they know about them. Raising awareness of these opportunities has been an issue, especially since many post-Dobbs grassroots movements are still in the early phases of development.

According to Faber, the ABA plans on putting together “blessings boxes” that will include Plan B pills, condoms, pregnancy tests and abortion medication if possible. The boxes will be distributed throughout the city and will be accessible to all in need.

Nonetheless, Southeast Ohio is a blind spot in regard to abortions. According to an OhioHealth spokesperson, OhioHealth hospitals and clinics, like O’Bleness, provide morning after pills, but not Plan C pills, which are effective contraceptives for a longer period of time. Abortion procedures are not performed in Athens, meaning those seeking an abortion will have to travel.

Ohioans seeking an abortion must likely travel to neighboring states like Michigan, where there is a 24-hour waiting period, but the procedure is available until fetal viability; Indiana, where there is an 18-hour waiting period and abortion is banned after 21 weeks and six days; Virginia, where there is no waiting period and abortion is banned after 26 weeks and six days; or Pennsylvania, where there is a 24-hour waiting period and abortion is banned after 23 weeks and six days. Traveling to obtain an abortion can be costly and time consuming endeavor.

Support and information about abortion access can be found online, for an example abortion finder locates the nearest abortion clinic to one’s location and provides information on the legal situation.

For further information on the legality of abortion in Ohio, the website abortionislegalinohio.com gives updates on rulings and gathers information on birth control, abortion clinics and help for funding the procedure or pills.

In a time of ever changing regulations, the sticker-laden streets of Athens try to create a safe space full of options and hope.

A couple of different stickers can be found on traffic poles, trash cans and windows; they bear the QR codes to resources  like plancpills.org and ineedanabortion.com.

Stewart said she thinks that some were probably put up by ABA activists.

Abortion rights in Ohio and the United States is a topic in motion. In last month’s midterm elections, voters were driven by abortion rights. Fifty-six percent of registered voters said in October that the issue of abortion was very important in their vote, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. That number was even higher among registered Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, with 75% of them rated abortion as a top issue.

In California, Michigan, Vermont, Montana and Kentucky, issues relating to abortion rights were on the ballot and, in all five states, residents voted in favor of protecting abortion rights

The next crucial step in abortion access is a hearing by the Ohio Supreme Court on Jenkins’s block on the abortion ban in mid-December. While the decision remains in the air, local activist in Athens will continue to mobilize in pursuit of securing abortion rights.