(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost today issued the following statement regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization:
“This decision returns abortion policy to the place it has always belonged: to the elected policy branches of government. Roe was poorly reasoned, a doctrine of shifting sands that invited perpetual litigation.
“We will continue to debate this issue. But passion is not a license to violence. I call again on my federal colleague, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and my fellow states’ attorneys general to publicly commit to holding violent protesters accountable under the law, no matter which side they are on.”
On Friday The Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. in 1973.
The court’s controversial but expected ruling gives individual states the power to set their own abortion laws without concern of running afoul of Roe, which for nearly half a century had permitted abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
Almost half the states are expected to outlaw or severely restrict abortion as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision. Other states plan to maintain more liberal rules governing the termination of pregnancies.
Ohio Democrat Party made a statement also, “Ohioans’ fundamental right to reproductive care, including abortion and birth control, is on the line in this year’s election. This disastrous decision lays squarely at the feet of Ohio Republicans – from J.D. Vance to Mike DeWine to extremists in the statehouse – who have spent years working to strip women of their basic rights and enacting new, cruel restrictions that would punish survivors of rape and incest.
“It is critical that Ohioans elect Tim Ryan, Nan Whaley and pro-choice Democratic candidates up and down the ballot in November who will protect the right to abortion. We will continue to fight so that women can make these personal decisions with their doctors and without unwanted and unnecessary interference from politicians. This November, Ohioans will take their outrage to the polls and defeat the extremist Republicans who gutted our freedom to choose.”
