Lebanon, Ohio, Bans Abortion As Battleground Moves To Local Level

LEBANON, OH — In a largely symbolic move ahead of arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court that could restrict or ban abortion outright, the City Council in Lebanon, Ohio, voted earlier this week to become “a sanctuary city for the unborn” by passing an ordinance outlawing abortion in the community.

The law, which declares abortion a “murderous act of violence” — unanimously approved Tuesday in Lebanon, a town of about 20,000 located 30 miles northeast of Cincinnati — makes abortion punishable by six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, effective immediately.

Lebanon Mayor Amy Brewer said the action sends a clear message to residents that “we do not think it is in our best interest to open a clinic or a hospital that does abortions,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. There currently are no clinics in the city that provide abortions.

The ordinance establishing Lebanon as a sanctuary city for the unborn is certain to be challenged by abortion and civil rights groups already girding themselves for a showdown over abortion in the U.S. Supreme Court later this year. The high court said earlier this month it would hear a Mississippi case that could dramatically alter Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that affirmed a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

Lebanon is the first Ohio city to ban abortions with a "sanctuary city for the unborn" ordinance. Most of the nearly 30 cities with such codes are in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott recently signed a fetal heartbeat bill that bans abortion as early as six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. Two cities in Nebraska also have declared themselves abortion-free zones.

Local laws like the one in Lebanon and elsewhere are part of the groundwork abortion foes are laying in preparation for the day the high court either limits abortion or eliminates it entirely. They've been successful in shifting the abortion battleground to state and local levels, according to the abortion-rights organization the Guttmacher Institute, which said the rate at which Republican-led states introduced or passed restrictive abortion laws in 2021 has only been eclipsed once in a decade, in 2017.

The so-called sanctuary city movement began in 2019, when abortions were banned in Waskom, Texas. Since then, the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett in October to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cemented the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

There currently are no clinics providing abortions within the city limits of Lebanon — or in 27 of the 28 cities that have passed similar codes — but the ordinance would make any such facilities illegal.

The new ordinance makes it a crime within the Lebanon city limits to perform an abortion, assist in an abortion, provide money or transportation for an abortion, or provide instructions for an abortion.

Women seeking an abortion won’t be prosecuted, and the abortion ban provides exemptions for ectopic pregnancies, abortions after miscarriages and if a doctor proves the abortion prevented the death of the mother or her risk of “substantial impairment of a major bodily function,” but does not provide exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

Councilman Doug Shope, the sponsor of the measure, worked with the Texas-based Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn. A conservative Christian, he said his decisions on the City Council are guided by his faith.

“I’ve heard people asking how much city money was used to research this or travel,” he said at the council meeting. “No travel was involved, and the city has not spent one penny on this. Video calls have taken care of the whole process.”

Ohio Right to Life spokeswoman Allie Frazier encouraged other Ohio cities and villages to pass similar ordinances as part of a strategy to make abortion “not just illegal but unthinkable across our great state.”

Outrage to the measure was swift.

One council member, Krista Wyatt, resigned in protest before the meeting. In a written statement to news station WXIX, Wyatt said that as a “respectable, decent human being,” she could no longer allow her name to be associated with the Lebanon City Council.

“There is a core group of people who have hijacked the council to force their personal, political and religious views on the entire citizenship of Lebanon,” she said. “It is not fair to the citizens and is not the role of a city council member to be a moral compass. The charter clearly states that we are to be elected as a non-partisan status, but the council membership has strayed very far from that.”

Stephanie Kollmann Baker, the state organizing director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, told council members they are “playing politics with people’s lives and health.” And Kersha Deibel, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio, said the measure is “part of an aggressive, nationwide anti-abortion agenda to do one thing — ban abortion outright.”

The American Civil Liberties Union said the measure as blatantly unconstitutional and promised a legal challenge.

"This hyper-local strategy is another attempt by anti-abortion extremists to stigmatize and ban abortion in Ohio, by whatever means necessary," said Freda Levenson, the group’s legal director, according to the Enquirer report.

Ohio state Rep. Lisa Sobecki (D-Toledo), the chair of the Ohio Democratic Women’s Legislative Caucus, called the City Council’s action “an attack on women’s freedom.”

“All women have the right to control their own bodies and make their own medical decisions without government interference,” Sobecki said in a statement. “It’s ultimately the woman’s choice to decide how she wants to proceed when she is pregnant. Legislation completely banning a legal and safe medical procedure will not end abortions. It puts women at risk and moves our state backwards.”

Ohio law currently bans abortions after 20 weeks. Lawmakers passed and Gov. Mike DeWine signed a six-week abortion ban in 2019, but a federal judge blocked it from taking effect after every abortion clinic in the state and the ACLU of Ohio challenged it in court.

The state Legislature also passed a six-week abortion ban in 2016, but then-Gov. John Kasich vetoed it.