The Plain Dealer / Cleveland.com: Health care for Ohioans shouldn’t require an airplane

CLEVELAND - This week, we marked Independence Day. But here in Ohio, freedom is still fraught. One year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, state lines have become dividing lines in America. This summer, within Ohio’s lines, our unalienable rights are still under question.

Last month, The Plain Dealer published a shocking story about Elevated Access, a volunteer effort that heroically flies Ohioans across state borders to receive necessary reproductive and gender-affirming care. It sounds like something out of another time and place, evoking memories of people escaping East Germany or North Korea, reliant on small planes, heroic pilots, and promises of anonymity.

People should not have to flee Ohio. But after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, many people, especially women, people of color, transgender people, feel like they need to.

Abortion is still legal in Ohio – barely. Following the Dobbs ruling until September of last year, abortion was effectively barred here due to Ohio’s 2019 law banning abortions after six weeks – a time frame in which many do not even realize they are pregnant and before many pregnancy-related health risks begin.

While the courts have temporarily placed Ohio’s six-week ban on hold, its impact was profound: Health care providers feared criminal prosecution, and the number of abortions performed in Ohio dropped precipitously. Other measures, like Ohio’s convoluted counseling and waiting time requirements, are clearly designed to make accessing reproductive care as difficult as possible.

The fate of abortion rights in Ohio is now in the hands of our deeply conservative Ohio Supreme Court. Republican leaders are also continuing their efforts to rescind reproductive rights by constraining the people’s ability to enshrine them in the Ohio Constitution by referendum. A proposal requiring constitutional amendments receive 60% of the vote, rather than a simple majority, is on the August special election ballot.

What’s happening here shows that reproductive rights are inextricably linked to the health of our democracy overall.

In Ohio, restrictions on health care for the LGBTQ+ community have taken effect, and proposals in a bill that recently passed the Ohio House would make it extremely difficult for people to receive gender-affirming care. The far right’s intentions are clear: to control fundamental decisions about your body, including decisions that may determine life and death.

Nationwide, the effect has been similar. Following Dobbs, at least 66 abortion clinics in 15 states have stopped providing services. Women have had to endure horrific experiences, forced to bring pregnancies to term under traumatic circumstances. Access to medical abortion drugs and even birth control is now at risk, potentially in the hands of the courts that have already done so much damage.

As a Black woman, I know and dread the trajectory of our country if federal civil rights are not enshrined and enforced. What’s happening in post-Roe America is tragically reminiscent of Jim Crow, when states were left to their own devices, allowing segregation and discrimination to flourish.

The only way to protect the rights of every American, of every Ohioan, is with new federal protections. As a woman, Ohioan, and American, it was my honor to co-sponsor the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which would restore the protections of Roe. House Democrats have also launched a discharge petition to force Speaker Kevin McCarthy to hold a vote on the WHPA. If House Republicans want to ban abortion and reproductive freedom, let them have the courage to do so while the entire country watches.

While I applaud the pilots and volunteers of Elevated Access who are helping Ohioans receive the care they need, this program should never have been needed.

More than 11 million people live in Ohio – there aren’t enough planes to fly us all out. Instead, we need to build an Ohio and an America where that’s not necessary.

U.S. Rep. Shontel M. Brown represents Ohio’s 11th District in the United States House of Representatives.

The Plain Dealer / Cleveland.com: Health care for Ohioans shouldn’t require an airplane