A Butler County judge dismissed another legal challenge to Ohio's abortion rights amendment.
The lawsuit, filed by Republican state Reps. Levi Dean and Jennifer Gross, along with Lebanon City Council Member Kristen Eggers, argued that abortion-rights proponents needed to call a constitutional convention, not a statewide vote, to enshrine reproductive rights in the State Constitution.
Ohio held its fourth and most recent constitutional convention in 1912, when it approved the citizen initiative and referendum process. More than a century later, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment ensuring abortion was legal before viability.
On Sept. 22, Butler County Common Pleas Judge J. Gregory Howard, a Republican, dismissed the lawsuit, writing
that the public officials lacked the legal right to sue for several reasons.
First, Gross and Dean filed the lawsuit as private individuals, not lawmakers, and the constitutional amendment did not personally harm them. But even if they had sued as lawmakers, they didn't identify specific laws blocked by the amendment.
Howard also ruled that the public officials couldn't prove that the amendment had blocked a parental consent requirement for minors to obtain abortions. That law is still in effect, and it hasn't been challenged in court.
"Plaintiff Eggers does not allege that either of her daughters are pregnant or likely to be, or that they would likely seek an abortion without parental consent. Plaintiffs' pure speculation does not establish individualized injury sufficient for standing," Howard wrote.
The ruling marks the second unsuccessful legal challenge to Ohio's abortion-rights amendment. In August, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimouslydismissed a Trumbull County judge's lawsuit challenging the state's abortion rights amendment.
Trumbull County Domestic Relations and Juvenile Division Court Judge David Engler, a Republican, argued that the amendment blocked him from weighing in on whether minors can obtain abortions if their parents object to them, a concept called judicial bypass.
That doesn't mean the legal battle over the 2023 amendment is over. Abortion rights backers have sued to block bans and other hurdles to abortion access. Those appeals will eventually make their way to the Ohio Supreme Court, where Republicans hold six of seven seats.
State government reporter Jessie Balmert can be reached at jbalmert@usatodayco.com or @jbalmert on X.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio judge dismisses challenge to Ohio abortion amendment
