This morning I reported on a last-minute amendment to Ohio’s budget that had some strange new language I hadn’t seen. In my post-Texas pre-coffee haze, I reported that it requires an ultrasound before abortion. I was wrong and I apologize.

It requires an ultrasound and 24-hour wait before birth control.

Buckle up, because we’re going through the looking glass.

“Pregnancy” in the context of the informed-consent requirements now means “any fertilized egg”.

Abortion is undefined, but presumably it’s construed to mean “the termination of a pregnancy”.

The FDA claims that hormonal birth control reduces the likelihood of egg implantation. This is vanishingly unlikely–hormonal birth control prevents ovulation to begin with–but that’s not what’s important.

What’s important is that the Crisis Pregnancy Centers all think that’s how birth control works. Recall that they don’t understand how pregnancy works in general.

So, the provision in the budget requires an ultrasound, some lies about cancer, and some ads for CPCs before an abortion.

But “the disruption of implantation of a fertilized egg” now counts as an abortion. Prescribing birth control is, in Ohio, a ticking time-abortion.

Meaning, an anti-choice activist can go to Planned Parenthood and get an IUD. She can wait until she has spotting or sheds some of her uterine lining, then claim that it was an abortion caused by her IUD, and Planned Parenthood tricked her into getting an abortion, paid for by Obamacare.

Where does she turn? Why, the state medical board, where Kasich appointee and Ohio Right to Life president Mike Gonidakis will welcome her with open arms.

She faces no punishment because the budget now adds:

A pregnant woman on whom an abortion is performed or induced in violation of section 2919.191 or 2919.192 of the Revised Code is not guilty of violating any of those sections; is not guilty of attempting to commit, conspiring to commit, or complicity in committing a violation of any of those sections; and is not subject to a civil penalty based on the abortion being performed or induced in violation of any of those sections.

That is new language added to the bill. Note the moral impunity that it embues.

Gonidakis does believe that IUDs (and the pill, and NuvaRing) cause abortions. No time to find a link, but just ask him.

Gonidakis will accuse Planned Parenthood of “(5) Making a false, fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading statement in the solicitation of or advertising for patients” and bring them before the full board.

This won’t go far, but it’ll serve ORTL’s purposes of:

get headlines like “Planned Parenthood faces charges”

spread the gospel that The Pill Kills

act persecuted when the rest of the medical board tosses the proceedings

This is parallel to Toledo’s transfer agreement situation (which, mind you, worked) and there’s no other reason to add this new language. Just like in 2011, this is confusing language that’s inserted without debate which quietly empowers the state medical board to take bizarre and unprecedented actions.

And they’re going to pass it tomorrow.

UPDATE: Here’s the bill in pdf. 130HB59-CC4263X2

Underline is the new language, strikethrough is the language cut.

UPDATE 2: I’ve clarified how the “birth control-ultrasound” language works in a separate post.