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Ohio has recently passed a law that directly impacts organizations like Abortion Forward, Abortion Forward Alliance, and Abortion Forward PAC, making it more challenging to carry out our mission of advocating for abortion access for all. This new law, passed by the manufactured anti-abortion majority in the Ohio House and Senate and signed by Governor DeWine, specifically targets groups engaged in political and ballot work, and it imposes strict regulations on the sources of our donations. It also grants exclusive power to the Attorney General to conduct investigations that will amount to fishing expeditions into how organizations are complying with this politically motivated law.

This new Ohio law directly attacks progressive political activity, including our endorsement process, candidate support, ballot initiative work, and PAC donations and expenditures. It places unnecessary burdens on political organizations, limits the participation of immigrants who are not citizens or legal permanent residents, and empowers the state to scrutinize our every move. However, with your support and vigilance, we can navigate these challenges and continue to fight for the rights and freedoms that all Ohioans deserve.

What You Can Do

As a supporter, your understanding and action are crucial. Here’s how you can help:

1. Certify Your Contributions: When making a donation, please be sure to check the new box on our website donation forms to certify that your funds are from a U.S. citizen, national, or legal permanent resident (Green Card holder), or from an entity that is domestically organized and operates primarily within the U.S. This certification is now a legal requirement for us to use your donation in our Ohio political work.

2. Stay Informed: Learn more about this law and its implications for our work. Knowledge is power, and understanding the challenges we face helps you better support our continued effort to make abortion accessible for all.

3. Spread the Word: Share this information with others who might not be aware of the new law and its impact on organizations like ours. The more people who know, the stronger our collective response can be.

4. Get Involved: If you have questions or want to know more, please get in touch with Kel McConaughey at 614-221-2594 ext. 406 or give@abortionforward.org.

Your support in meeting these new compliance measures is more important than ever. Make a certified donation to support our political work now.

Learn more about how this law affects our collective efforts to protect and expand abortion access in Ohio.

What the Law Does

The law mandates that we verify the source of all donations, ensuring that only contributions from U.S. citizens, nationals, or legal permanent residents (Green Card holders) are used for ballot initiatives and other political activities. Foreign nationals, are prohibited from contributing to or spending on Ohio candidates or ballot measures. This law also applies to funding for electioneering communications and contributions to political entities involved in Ohio elections.

How It Impacts Our Work

For Abortion Forward and similar organizations, this law creates a substantial new and politically administrative burden. We are now required to implement rigorous verification processes to ensure compliance, diverting time and resources from our primary mission—fighting for reproductive freedom. The law also empowers Ohio Attorney General David Yost to investigate any organizations involved in political or ballot work, increasing the risk of legal challenges and scrutiny, particularly for those supporting progressive causes like ours.

Why This Law is Problematic

The new regulations are not just about ensuring transparency in donations; they are part of a broader strategy to stifle progressive political activity in Ohio. By targeting groups that have successfully used ballot initiatives to advance rights and freedoms, this law is designed to make it harder for us to continue our work. It unfairly penalizes and stigmatizes non-citizen or legal permanent resident (aka Green Card holder) immigrants, , by barring them from supporting organizations that share their values and engage in the political process—this is a political stunt, not a genuine or necessary effort to protect election integrity.

Note to Foreign Nationals

We are appalled by this politically motivated and stigmatizing law that has targeted you and your families. We warmly welcome foreign nationals to continue supporting our vital work in education, outreach, and abortion stigma-busting. While the new law restricts your ability to support our political activities, your contributions are still essential in many other areas of our mission. To explore how you can get involved and make a difference, please get in touch with Kel McConaughey at 614-221-2594 ext. 406 or give@abortionforward.org. Your support is invaluable as we continue to advocate for reproductive freedom.

@abortionforward Don’t talk to us about Roe. Talk to us about permanently protecting the right to abortion. @ohiogabe @Kamala HQ @Pro-Choice Minnesota @Lizz Winstead #abortionrights #prochoice #reproductiverights ♬ MILLION DOLLAR BABY (VHS) – Tommy Richman

When Democrats campaign on reproductive rights in 2024, they should look at the law signed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as a textbook example of what kind of federal protection we should be asking Congress to pass and President Kamala Harris to enact. It’s not restoring Roe.

What does the Minnesota law say?

Section 1. [145.409] REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RIGHTS.
Subdivision 1. Short title. This section may be cited as the “Protect Reproductive Options
Act.”
Subd. 2. Definition. For purposes of this section, “reproductive health care” means
health care offered, arranged, or furnished for the purpose of preventing pregnancy,
terminating a pregnancy, managing pregnancy loss, or improving maternal health and birth
outcomes. Reproductive health care includes, but is not limited to, contraception; sterilization;
preconception care; maternity care; abortion care; family planning and fertility services;
and counseling regarding reproductive health care.
Subd. 3. Reproductive freedom. (a) Every individual has a fundamental right to make
autonomous decisions about the individual’s own reproductive health, including the
fundamental right to use or refuse reproductive health care.
(b) Every individual who becomes pregnant has a fundamental right to continue the
pregnancy and give birth, or obtain an abortion, and to make autonomous decisions about
how to exercise this fundamental right.
Subd. 4. Right to reproductive freedom recognized. The Minnesota Constitution
establishes the principles of individual liberty, personal privacy, and equality. Such principles
ensure the fundamental right to reproductive freedom.
Subd. 5. Local unit of government limitation. A local unit of government may not
regulate an individual’s ability to freely exercise the fundamental rights set forth in this
section in a manner that is more restrictive than that set forth in this section.

###

Paid for by Abortion Forward. Not coordinated with any campaign or campaign committee.

As Ohioans celebrated the preliminary injunction blocking the 24-hour waiting period from being enforced, media across the state hurried to report the story. Abortion Forward was quoted in several articles:

Ohio AG plans to appeal judge’s ruling that blocks 24-hour abortion waiting period — Fox19, Mary LeBus reporting
Excerpt: “This ruling will literally open doors to patients needing abortion care,” Abortion Forward Executive Director Kellie Copeland said. “[Friday’s] announcement will help alleviate delays to find appointment availability. Patients benefit from less red tape. The now-blocked law meant people had to wait longer for care because clinics have had to do everything twice.”

No waiting period: Ohio abortion clinics doing same-day services after court win — WEWS, Morgan Trau reporting
“It’s life-changing for so many of them because it really means they have access to the health care in their time frame,” Abortion Forward‘s Jaime Miracle said, referencing patients. … “Most people who have abortions in our state and across the country already have kids at home, so not only are they trying to juggle their schedules and taking time off work, but they’re trying to find extra childcare for their kid on not one day but two days,” Miracle added. “They’re having to travel multiple times.”

Many Ohio abortion clinics have done away with 24-hour waiting period due to a recent court ruling — Statehouse News Bureau, Jo Ingles reporting
“The 24-hour waiting period really was such an impact on not just the patients but the providers providing care, the abortion funds that had to help those patients get access with those restrictions – really, so much changed with that one ruling,” said Jaime Miracle, deputy director of Abortion Forward. Miracle said Preterm in Cleveland and other clinics are already performing abortions in one visit. She said clinics have been able to reschedule appointments to make it easier for patients to get an abortion. “It was really a life-changing day for patients in our state to not have to travel to the clinic twice, to not have to hear or be forced to be told information from a doctor that’s medically inaccurate and stigmatizing, to not have to pay for child care twice, to not have to drive to the clinic twice, to not have to take two days off work,” Miracle said.

Judge temporarily blocks Ohio’s 24-hour abortion care waiting period — WCMH, Katie Millard reporting
“Policies like 24-hour waiting periods are exceptionally harmful, especially for low-income patients. Patients are forced to find funds for a second round of transportation and child care, and frequently obtain a second days’ unpaid leave from work just to make an unnecessary second visit to a doctor’s office,” Abortion Forward Executive Director Kellie Copeland said. “In practical terms, that is an abortion BAN for many patients. Ohio voters do not want government interfering in patients’ lives and obstructing care.”

…and on TikTok, our Gabriel Mann broke it down:

@abortionforward The waiting period for abortion care is gone!!! Our @ohiogabe breaks it down: Late last week, a Franklin County judge issued a preliminary injunction to halt Ohio’s 24-hour waiting period. Patients are now able to access same-day care without having to arrange and pay for a medically-unnecessary second visit. This is the promise of the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment in action! #ohio #abortionrights #prochoice #reproductiverights #reproductivefreedom #issue1 ♬ Photoshoot – Gucci Mane

Did you watch Oprah Winfrey‘s speech at the Democratic National Convention?

She said:

“The women and men who are battling to keep us from going back to a time of desperation and shame and stone-cold fear, they are the new freedom fighters. And make no mistake: They are the best of America.”

And she was talking about YOU.

You have been a part of this movement, both in Ohio and across the country, working to restore abortion access following the fall of Roe v Wade. When you collected signatures, talked to your friends and neighbors about how to vote on Issue 1 (The Issue 1 last August, last November, or this November — they’re all important!), registered new voters, knocked on doors, and shared your stories… this is how we fight, and when we fight, we win!

Can you continue that fight with a donation to continue the Abortion Forward mission in the 2024 General Election?

Her comments about your work followed a discussion of the abortion storytellers who had shared their experiences at the DNC already:

“Now, over the last couple of nights, we have all seen brave people walk onto the stage and share their most private pain. Amanda and Josh, Kaitlyn, Hadley—they told us their stories of rape and incest and near-death experiences from having the state deny them the abortion that their doctor explained was medically necessary. And they told us these things for one reason, and that is to keep what happened to them from happening to anybody else. Because if you do not have autonomy over this — (Winfrey gestures to her body) over this — if you cannot control when and how you choose to bring your children into this world and how they are raised and supported, there is no American dream.”

This work could not be more important, and at this moment it is incredibly critical that we push forward as hard as we possibly can. All gas, no brakes!

Please make a donation now.

From our Operations Director Ryan Conway:

Finding a healthcare provider you trust can be a stressful experience for anyone.

That experience becomes even more challenging when you’re looking for a provider who respects your identity and understands the importance of gender-affirming care, especially when our medical system is so preoccupied with forcing people into binary boxes.

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it became increasingly clear that our community needed a way to cut through all of the nonsense and thinly veiled transphobia to find a provider that earnestly and wholeheartedly integrated their understanding of LGBTQ+ needs into their practice.

As I talked to other members of the LGBTQ+ community about their healthcare journeys, I found providers tabling at local pride events, searched through online databases, and found websites that provided useful products and education. I started compiling a list of LGBTQ+ friendly resources that could provide a great starting point if you’re looking to begin your own healthcare journey or are trying to help a loved one in need.

You don’t have to start your journey from square 1.

Check it out on our Trans and Non-Binary Resources Page!