Ohio legislators add abortion provision to budget

Chrissie Thompson | The Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption Abortion in, Medicaid out: Gov. John Kasich on the Ohio budget Gov. John Kasich addresses an eleventh-hour abortion provision in the Ohio budget, along with his next steps in his fight to expand Medicaid.

Measure also includes withholding family-planning money from Planned Parenthood

Kasich has until 11%3A59 p.m. Sunday to make any line-item vetoes

The budget is supposed to take effect Monday

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich would not say whether he'll veto any of the abortion measures added to the state budget by the Legislature late Tuesday.

A committee of four Republicans and two Democrats on Tuesday night passed the final version of the Ohio budget, meaning Kasich is now the only person who can make any final change to the budget.

Republican majorities in the House and Senate introduced several regulations from abortion rights opponents into the budget, including a last-minute provision that would require a doctor to detect any fetal heartbeat and tell a woman about it before she has an abortion. In addition, Republicans upheld provisions that would withhold family-planning money from Planned Parenthood and restrict abortion clinics.

A doctor would have to use external medical means -- probably an abdominal ultrasound -- to find the heartbeat. The doctor would then have to notify the woman about the presence of the heartbeat and the fetus' likelihood of surviving to full term.

"I think the Legislature has a right to stick things in budgets and put policy in budgets. It happens in conference committees. There's nothing out of the ordinary here in the way in which they've decided this," Kasich said Wednesday about the fetal heartbeat provision.

The budget is expected to pass the House and Senate on Thursday on up-or-down votes, without opportunities for amendments. Kasich would then have until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday to make any line-item vetoes and sign the bill so it can take effect Monday.

He won't make a decision on a veto until it's closer to the time for him to sign the budget, he said.

"I'll look at the language, keeping in mind that I'm pro-life," he said.

The abdominal ultrasound requirement had not appeared in any prior versions of the budget. A room of lobbyists, lawmakers and journalists fell silent as a legal staffer explained the new budget provision Tuesday.

"Where is this amendment coming from?" asked Sen. Tom Sawyer, a Democrat from Akron, Ohio, complaining that lawmakers were passing the ultrasound requirement without having a hearing.

The budget also would send taxpayer money to other health clinics over abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood. Taxpayer money already can't be used for abortions, opponents say, and the defunding could raise costs or cut off care for low-income women who often rely on Planned Parenthood for affordable, judgment-free medical care.

In addition, public hospitals would be unable to make required patient-transfer agreements with abortion clinics.

To stay open, clinics would have to find a private hospital willing to make the agreement, a concern for centers in areas without a private hospital or with private hospitals that have religious affiliations.

Republicans make up 60% of the House and 70% of the Senate, so the final budget generally mirrors their priorities. For instance, party leaders on Thursday released a substantially revised tax plan that would cut income taxes by 10% for all Ohioans over the next three years and allow business owners to pay taxes on only half of their first $250,000 in income.

The changes came so late in the process that the public didn't have enough time to give input, said Senate Minority Leader Eric Kearney, a Democrat from North Avondale, Ohio. House and Senate committees had hearings on the budget provisions, but changes were unlikely because of the looming Sunday deadline. In addition, the GOP's majority in the House and Senate allowed them to exclude Democrats from their week of negotiations on the final budget, he said.

"The budget is 6,000 pages," said Kearney. "I would probably have 6,000 ideas along with my caucus, but we haven't been included."