Members of the Protect Choice Ohio Coalition
Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights
“Ohioans are perilously close to losing access to safe, legal, comprehensive reproductive medical care,” OPRR executive director Dr. Lauren Beene said. “As we saw first-hand when Ohio’s abortion ban went into effect last year, withholding that care puts people’s lives and health at risk. This common-sense amendment ensures that physicians will be able to provide the care our patients need and deserve free from government interference.”
“The tremendous and unprecedented level of grassroots support for our effort to constitutionally protect reproductive rights and abortion access is truly inspiring and demonstrates how necessary this issue is for Ohioans,” OPRR president Dr. Marcela Azevedo said.
Academy of Medicine of Cleveland & Northern Ohio
“We’re proud to join with Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights in an effort to secure access to reproductive health care for all Ohioans,” said Dr. Jonathan Scharfstein, AMCNO President. “As medical practitioners, we care deeply about the health and well-being of our patients, all of whom have different and unique circumstances and needs.”
“We have grave concerns with any policy that erodes the sanctity of the physician-patient relationship,” Scharfstein said. “Abortion bans violate long-established and widely accepted principles of medical ethics by substituting legislators’ opinions for a physician’s individualized patient-centered counseling.”
Cincinnati Physicians for Change
“We at Cincinnati Physicians for Change are proud to be a community member of Protect Choice Ohio. As a group of over 220 physicians in the greater Cincinnati area, we understand the need and urgency to protect reproductive freedom for all Ohioans. Reproductive decisions should be left to patients in conjunction with their families and treating medical professionals and not to politicians and government officials based on their personal beliefs. We fully support the effort to place a constitutional amendment before Ohio citizens to help ensure our patients can continue to get access to evidenced-based reproductive care in our state, including abortion.”
Doctors Organized for Healthcare Solutions
All of Ohio knows that extremist forces are committed to force women to carry dangerous pregnancies, to deny them health care that has already killed women and threatened the lives of many more, seek to deny all men and women access to contraception, and prohibit access to all would be parents to IVF and similar hopes to have children. DOHCS stands with all Ohio in saying these doctors will not be silent when such forces try to break the ability of trusted doctors to help all their patients secure their life, their liberty, and their pursuit of parenthood.
Chair of DOHCS, Dr. Arthur Lavin states, “The issue of reproductive freedom will decide, are we a democracy, where the will of most of the people decides what will happen, or a tyranny where handfuls of extremists force their way on all. DOHCS was founded to have doctors’ voices advance good health and fair justice for all. This ballot initiative calls on all Ohioans to vote to secure our reproductive freedoms, our ability to see our doctors, and our voice in our democracy.”
Ohio Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG Ohio)
“This common-sense amendment will restore and protect the vital reproductive rights that were guaranteed by Roe v. Wade for fifty years,” Dr. David Hackney, Chair of AGOG Ohio and Dr. Amy Burkett, the organization’s immediate past Chair said in a joint statement. “When Dobbs destroyed those rights and Ohio’s extreme abortion ban that does not include exceptions for rape, incest, or lethal fetal anomalies went into effect, the consequences were immediate and dire. The health and lives of patients across our state were put at risk and physicians faced the prospect of being arrested, charged, convicted of felonies, and jailed for providing standard, appropriate, evidence-based medical care. Enshrining reproductive freedom, including access to abortion, in the Constitution is the only way to ensure that this dangerous, intolerable scenario is never repeated in our state.”
Physicians Action Network
“Physicians Action Network is a group of progressive physicians and medical students in Ohio who have always supported reproductive rights and evidence-based medicine. We are proud to join the Ohio Physician for Reproductive Rights as we all work together to enshrine reproductive freedom in the Ohio Constitution. We believe that women deserve patient-centered care without politicians in the exam room dictating that care. Legislation should be evidence-based and not politically driven and this amendment does that. We look forward to seeing this amendment pass in November and make Ohio safer for women.” – Co-Chairs Anita Somani and Greg Lam
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
SMFM is proud to support our Ohio-based members, Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, and Protect Choice Ohio to advance a ballot initiative that would enshrine the right to reproductive health care, including abortion care, in the state’s constitution. While the proposed measure would greatly improve access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care, we recognize that it will leave some high-risk pregnancy patients and others unable to receive the compassionate, evidence-based care they need in Ohio. SMFM continues to work toward a future where individuals across the country – including Ohio – have access to abortion care without legislative interference.
