Stay engaged, involved, and up-to-date: 11/13/17 Week in Review

• HB 214 (LaTourette, Merrin) – Down Syndrome Abortion Ban: Bans a doctor from performing an abortion if they have knowledge that a woman is seeking the abortion due to a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. This bill would charge a doctor with a fourth degree felony if they performed an abortion procedure for a woman if the reason for seeking to terminate the pregnancy is in part due to a Down syndrome diagnosis. It passed in the full Ohio House in early November by a 63-30 vote. It was referred to the Senate Health, Human Services & Medicaid Committee this past week and awaits a hearing. 

• SB 145 (Huffman, Wilson) – Abortion Method Ban: Bans the safest and most common procedure for abortions in the second trimester. It has already passed out of the Senate chamber by a 24-9 vote in the full Senate and moved over to the House. The House Criminal Justice Committee held a first hearing on the bill for sponsor testimony this past Tuesday. You can find testimony here (look under hearings for November 14).

• SB 164 (LaRose) – Down Syndrome Abortion Ban: This bill would charge a doctor with a fourth degree felony if they performed an abortion procedure for a woman if the reason for seeking to terminate the pregnancy is in part due to a Down syndrome diagnosis. The Senate Health, Human Services & Medicaid Committee held a fourth hearing and vote on the bill this past Tuesday. It passed out of Committee with Sen. Stephanie Kunze (R-Hilliard) joining the panel’s three Democrats in voting no. It was then brought to the full Senate for a vote the next day and passed by a 20-12 vote with all nine Senate Democrats and three Senate Republicans (Matt Dolan, Gayle Manning, and Stephanie Kunze) voting no.

• SB 171 (Hottinger) – Protection Orders: Increases the penalty for violating a protection order under certain circumstances. The bill would then require those that have violated their protection orders to be electronically monitored by probation agencies. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a second hearing for proponent testimony on the bill this past week. You can find all testimony here (look for Committee Documents at the bottom of the page from November 14).

• SB 192 (Tavares) – Awareness Week: Designates the last week in September as “Diaper Need Awareness Week.” The bill was referred to the Senate Health, Human Services & Medicaid Committee this past week and awaits a hearing.

• SB 207 (Kunze) –Strangulation: This bill expands the offense of felonious assault to include the acts of strangulation or suffocation. The Senate Judiciary Committee will held a first hearing for sponsor testimony on the bill this past week. You can find all testimony here (look for the Committee Documents at the bottom of the page from November 14)

Earlier this week, U.S. House of Representatives passed their tax bill known as the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”, which will have disastrous affects for Ohio women and their families. And the U.S. Senate is moving forward with their version of the tax bill as well – a bill that would be just as damaging. While there are differences between the two bills, they both contain harmful provisions that come up short for women and their families, including:

• Massive tax cuts to wealthy individuals and corporations paid for largely by shifting away resources to low- and moderate-income individuals through cuts to critical programs and services helping women and their families;
• Dismantling a key component of the Affordable Care Act by repealing the individual mandate. Analyses show that this cause the price of premiums to increase and result in 13 million fewer people having health care coverage over the next decade;
• Adding at least $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit; 
• Repealing the student loan interest deduction in the House version of the bill, which would increase the financial burden of student loan debt for college students.
• A poorly crafted provision offering companies a small tax credit for providing employees with as little as two weeks of paid family and medical leave in the Senate version of the bill. Liberal and conservative researchers have stated that this kind of policy is untested and expensive, while unlikely to result in any real benefit. This is not the kind of paid leave policy that working women need, want, or deserve; and
• Child Tax Credit (CTC) provisions that fall short of providing real relief for low- and moderate-income families. The childcare provisions in both the Senate and House plans would take the refundable portion of the CTC away from low-income children with Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs).