Ohio Statehouse update for June 2026
Blog | June 15, 2026
On June 10, the Ohio Legislature wrapped up what is hopefully their last week of session before a very long summer break. There was a LOT going on with abortion rights, sex education, voting rights, and Medicaid in the last days and hours of the legislature… mostly bad of course.
Here is a rundown of their final actions:
Amended House Bill 324, that would ban the use of telemedicine for mifepristone, one of the medications used in the medication abortion protocol. The changes made to the bill make it impossible to use telemedicine for any drug approved by the FDA but required to have additional monitoring through the FDA’s “Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy” or REMS program. The REMS program exists for the FDA to use the best available scientific evidence to reduce the risk for certain medications but also ensure patient access to the medications. The FDA removed the in-person requirement from the REMS protocol for mifepristone first and 2021, an finalized that change in 2023 – finding that the evidence showed that there was no medical reason to require an in-person visit. Instead of actually addressing the real challenges Ohioans have in accessing health care services the Ohio legislature is instead pushing this bill – telling medical experts that it knows better than them how healthcare should be delivered to their patients.
Opponent testimony hearing on House Bill 347, a NEW 24-hour state imposed waiting period for abortion with required misinformation scripts for doctors to give their patients. We joined our friends at Ohio Women’s Alliance, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio and medical experts in testifying against this dangerous bill. They did not vote on this bill in committee last week – but we expect them to take it up during the lame duck session this November and December.
Passed an amended version of Sub Senate Bill 276 which now includes a requirement that schools teach the “Success Sequence” in public schools. This curriculum is pushed by conservative anti-abortion organizations and is simply just a rebranding of failed abstinence only sex-education programs. The amendment was released just hours before the committee vote. Rep Sean Brennan, the ranking member on the Education Committee said in his floor speech: “[This amendment is] a simplistic standard that fails to reflect the real struggles of so many Ohioans. The bill is dangerous, not because it promotes hard work, but because it reduces life’s complexities to a single path and does not factor in circumstances often beyond one’s control.” Brennan then shared the story of his own family that because of circumstances beyond his mother’s control forced them to not be able to follow this “sequence.”
Passed Senate Bill 315, which became the vehicle which the legislature used to fast track changes to the Medicaid program. The bill started as a proposal to better protect SNAP (aka food stamp) recipients against their balances being stolen off their cards This is all in response to a blogger’s claims that there was rampant fraud in Ohio’s system. Hundreds of Ohioans, members of the disability rights community, their family members and loved ones, came down to the statehouse to testify against the deadly changes that were initially proposed in this bill. Fortunately, most of the worst provisions were removed from the bill before its passage, but once again the republican majority in Ohio used inaccurate information to attack programs that literally keep people in our state alive. Rep Rachel Baker said it best during her floor speech on the bill – “No Ohioan should ever have to come to the Ohio Legislature and beg for dignity … not being harmful is the absolute bare minimum of our duties, preventing a disaster is not an achievement.”
Attacked voting rights in TWO separate proposals:
Senate Joint Resolution 10 is a proposed constitutional amendment that would put Ohio’s existing requirement that a voter present ID to vote in person permanently into Ohio’s Constitution. Ohio already has some of the most restrictive voter ID laws – and now republicans want to put them into the constitution – making it nearly impossible to update as technology and systems improve. Because this is a constitutional amendment Ohio voters will be voting on this proposal on their ballot in November and it will only go into effect if passed by the majority of voters.
House Bill 472 was amended to create a confusing and disjointed process for requiring a person to produce a photo ID to vote by mail. The original bill was introduced to allow homeless Ohioans to get IDs and any documents needed to obtain a photo ID for free — a very good thing. It also got hijacked last week with horrible Republican policy. This will impact thousands of older, disabled, and rural voters across our state who rely on vote by mail to have their voices heard in our democracy.
If you have some time today, please call Gov. Mike DeWine at 614-466-3555 and tell him to VETO House Bill 472 and Senate Bill 276 and protect Ohioans.
