After raising doubts about rape victim, AG’s office won’t say if he supports abortion law

Now that one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States is in effect in Ohio, some of the state’s Republican leaders don’t seem to want to discuss it.

Consider Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. it rushed to court on June 24 shortly after Roe v Wade was overturned to enforce the Ohio law, which was signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019.

Then, earlier this month, The Indianapolis Star reported this 10-year-old rape victim forced to go to Indiana to terminate pregnancy. Following the report, Yost went to Fox News to raise false suspicions for the existence of the rape victim. TSuspicions about the guts were dispelled two days later, when Columbus Police arrested a 27-year-old man who they say admitted to raping the child at least twice.

And since the arrest, Yost has struggled to back up his claim on Fox News that under Ohio law, the 10-year-old could still have an abortion in Ohio.

As of late last week, Yost and his staff not only refused to say how old a girl — or a teenager or a woman — must be before the law forces her to give birth to a rapist’s child. His communications director also wouldn’t say whether the attorney general supports the abortion restrictions he moved so readily to enact less than a month ago.

Creating confusion

Ohio law prohibits most abortions about six weeks after a woman becomes pregnant. It does not make exceptions for cases of rape or incest.

Yost on July 11 created a lot of confusion when he told Fox host Jesse Watters that he was skeptical of the existence of the 10-year-old from Ohio and that it was a “hoax” to say she was forced to leave the state for an abortion if it would be. really real

“Ohio’s heartbeat law has a medical emergency exception,” Yost told Watters. “It is wider than a mother’s life. This young girl — if she exists and if this horrible thing really happened to her, it breaks my heart to think about it — she didn’t have to leave Ohio to find treatment.”

Was he saying that a pregnancy by a girl so young would automatically qualify her for exemptions because it threatened to kill her or cause “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function?”

In an analysis, the Legislative Service Commission said the law does not make exceptions based on age.

“Ohio’s abortion ban applies regardless of the circumstances of conception or the age of the mother,” he said. according to the Washington Post.

After the girl’s existence was confirmed, Yost’s office claimed he failed to tell the Fox audience that 10-year-olds are automatically exempt under Ohio law.

“Yost’s office stressed that his assessment was not related to age requirements, but whether the pregnancy would be considered a medical emergency. Columbus’ dispatch reported Thursday.

However, two OB-GYNs said that medically, there is nothing that would make 10-year-olds as a group automatically eligible for abortion exemptions under Ohio law. Such pregnancies are dangerous, they told the Capital Journal, but so are many others.

And besides, such a claim doesn’t seem to make sense in the context of Yost’s appearance at Fox. Was he saying that he was familiar with the 10-year-old’s individual health condition even though he continued to doubt her existence?

Bethany McCorkle, Yost’s communications director, responded by pointing to an “explainer” her office released Thursday. He discussed exceptions in the law, but did not shed light on whether a 10-year-old would automatically qualify for them or how Yost could have known about a girl’s individual circumstances that he said might not be real.

No instructions

For doctors, when and if the law allows abortions is not just an academic exercise. If they violate it, they can be charged with criminal offenses, sued in civil court and subject to professional sanctions.

In his position as attorney general, there are essential steps Yost can take to clear up the confusion he helped create in his appearance on Fox News — and from the law in general, he said. Maria Phillis, a Northeast Ohio gynecologist.

he “it can give guidance to the state and its agencies and even the general public to say, ‘Hey, this is how this law should actually be enforced,’” she told the Capital Journal last week. “So if he thinks that just being 10 years old is enough of a medical necessity to seek an abortion, he can make that statement and make that clarifying instruction.”

She added: “He is the general prosecutor. He might say, ‘We don’t think we should prosecute anyone for an abortion of a 10-year-old.’ He might say, ‘I don’t think we should prosecute any doctor for making a decision under this law.’ But he’s not doing that. He seems to be trying to have it both ways. And in a way it seems like he’s trying to make Ohio’s doctors, patients and constituents, frankly, aware of the impacts of this law.

McCorkle was asked why Yost has not issued such guidance. After all, it was more than three years since Governor DeWine signed the law, 10 weeks since the draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade came out, and more than three weeks since the actual decision was made.

“When have we ever issued guidelines after a Supreme Court decision?” McCorkle responded in an email. “(The Ohio Department of Health) is legally required to write regulations; I think the question is better addressed to them.”

Of course, any guidance from Yost in this case would be about Ohio law, Senate Bill 23, and not the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organizationwhich paved the way for Ohio law enforcement.

When this was pointed out, McCorkle responded by writing, “Please share with me where we are required to provide guidance on certain laws.”

Meanwhile, health department spokesman Ken Gordon identified passage in Ohio law which defines “medical emergency”.

He added, “While that section also provides examples of conditions that pose a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function, the physician must use his or her good faith medical judgment based on the facts known to the physician.” at that time, if other conditions or specific facts constitute a medical emergency.”

But when asked if Yost had given his department any guidance on how to pursue SB 23, he replied that the health department “considers all communications with the General Prosecutor’s Office privileged.”

Basic questions

As confusion and controversy grow over Ohio’s abortion restrictions, the state’s Republican leaders are not answering some of the tough questions it raises. Despite being asked several times, the assistants about it DeWinea former attorney general, and Yost have not said how old their bosses think a person should be before the new law requires them to have their rapists’ babies — or what they personally think about it matter.

Last week, Yost’s spokeswoman wouldn’t even say whether her boss supports SB 23.

His previous actions and statements seem to indicate that he was at least used to it.

“Sometimes, the evolution of the law requires bold steps,” he said in a declaration exactly after the approval of the law in 2019. “In the last 46 years, the practice of medicine has changed. Science has changed. Even the durability point has changed. Only the law is left behind. This law provides a consistent and objective standard to guide the courts.”

Less than an hour after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24, Yost took to Twitter to announce that his office had already filed a motion to pass the Ohio law.

“BREAKING: We filed a motion in federal court moments ago to dissolve the injunction against Ohio’s Heartbeat Act, which was based on the now overturned precedents of Roe and Casey,” he said.

And last week, as he tried to cast doubt on the existence of the Ohio child who was raped, Yost snapped Caitlin Bernard, Indiana’s doctor who looked after the child, in The Dispatch, calling him someone “Who has an obvious ax to grind.”

Bernard’s ax was apparently speaking against the end of Roe v Wade arguing that it could compromise patient care.

But McCorkle, Yost’s spokeswoman, would not answer directly last week when asked if Yost supports new abortion restrictions in Ohio. She just said, “The Attorney General’s job is to enforce the laws that exist.”

Phillis, an OB-GYN in Ohio, said things have been tough working during the coronavirus pandemic “In the midst of laws being passed trying to prevent us from taking good care of our patients and then being called as an activist to speak up and say this is going to be a problem for our patients and here’s why … I mean, come on . What is Dave Yost doing to take care of any of our patients? That’s what I want to know.”