Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court and 18 other attorneys general to reject the challenges of Ohio’s Heartbeat Act.
The act prohibits abortions after six weeks with exceptions to prevent death or substantial irreversible damage to bodily functions of the mother. Cases of ectopic pregnancy are also exempt under the act.
“The Dobbs decision sent the issue of abortion back to the States,” Labrador said in a press release. “If the people of Ohio wish to allow abortion, they have the democratic ability to make that opinion heard at the ballot box, as the founders intended. Activists should not be able to use the courts to thwart the will of the people. I urge the Ohio Supreme Court to uphold the abortion laws enacted by the people’s representatives.”
Argument
Members of the Ohio Supreme Court face one question: Can abortion providers argue for the right to abortions?
According to Cornell Law School, filing a lawsuit or defending the rights of a third-party individual means one has third-party standing. It is generally prohibited in the United States.
The brief presents two arguments stating why the Court should withhold third-party standing from abortion providers.
First, the abortion providers did not show a “close relationship” with the women whose rights they wish to assert. The brief said this is often difficult for abortion providers to show.
“They commonly seek to sue on behalf of unknown women who may in the future come to them seeking abortions,” the brief said. “For the women that they do know, the women’s relationship with abortion providers is usually brief, shallow, and transactional: often just minutes long.”
Second, there is no “hindrance” to women asserting the right to an abortion. The brief said there is no need for abortion providers to do it for them.
“Affected women have sued to vindicate a right to abortion many times,” the brief said.
