Again, Yost - a lawyer - is the AG and enforcement official for the state. That the law has no prior test case or that doctors are uncertain on the legality doesn't change what Yost asserts, that the law provides exception for such cases:
(A) Except as provided in division (B) of this section, no person shall knowingly and purposefully perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life of the unborn human individual the pregnant woman is carrying and whose fetal heartbeat has been detected in accordance with division (A) of section 2919.192 of the Revised Code.
Whoever violates this division is guilty of performing or inducing an abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, a felony of the fifth degree.
(B) Division (A) of this section does not apply to a physician who performs a medical procedure that, in the physician's reasonable medical judgment, is designed or intended to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.
A physician who performs a medical procedure as described in this division shall declare, in a written document, that the medical procedure is necessary, to the best of the physician's reasonable medical judgment, to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman. In the document, the physician shall specify the pregnant woman's medical condition that the medical procedure is asserted to address and the medical rationale for the physician's conclusion that the medical procedure is necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.
- and permits a 10 year old rape victim to have an abortion. So, whether of ignorance,, uncertainty, or expediency, the girl did not have to leave the state because he's plainly stating the AG's office views the law as permitting such abortions.
A
"physician's reasonable judgment" is pretty damned broad, and still predicated
upon a detected heartbeat, usually around 6 weeks. I can understand a doctor's hesitancy to be the first case, but that's not a determinant of legality. Who's to say the next Ohio clinic contacted wouldn't have performed it? Why did no one contact the AG's office for clarification? Probably because Mom - whatever her relationship to the accused rapist designated a minor by the attendant abortionist's report - appears to be protecting him. Again, I want to know what happened here - why this guy had repeated access to the girl and why abortive measure wasn't sought earlier - but I suspect Mom has as much culpability as anyone in how this transpired.
This is the nature of laws, especially new laws and is an opportunity for clarification via the legislature or court if necessary. For now, the AG has provided guidance.
It's shameful that decades of a barbarous practice haven't afflicted the nation's conscience to the degree that it is not "rare" in addition to "safe and legal". Then we might not be having the conversation. Instead we have a Democrat congressional consensus of advancing abortion
with no limits. Putting it to the states is an imperfect but best - and constitutional - approach.
I trust this hasn't deflated the boner you have for AG Yost.