This week, Vashitta, Kelley and Gabe discussed recent events here in Ohio and across the country. We’re participating in a great #ExposeFakeClinics campaign helmed by Lady Parts Justice. With last week’s clinic closure in Akron, Ohio is down to 8 surgery centers providing abortion services to women. In Congress, the US Senate deliberates over how and whether to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act… or just let it all burn.

This week, Gabe sat down with Julie, Molly, and Abby from Lady Parts Justice League! This episode is a joint production with their podcast, Repro Madness.

LPJ came to Cleveland as a part of their Vagical Mystery Tour. The tour is a series of comedy shows and service projects bringing positive attention and assistance for abortion providers across America. In Cleveland, they came back to Preterm to lift up the staff.

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This week, Gabe, Elaina, and Kelley discuss the last actions on the state budget. The legislature added more money to the wasteful Pregnancy and Parenting Program that funds crisis pregnancy centers. The final budget bill gives CPCs $1,000,000. This funding is taken away from TANF funds, which are relied upon by many low-income Ohioans. This is bad.

Thankfully, Ohio will retain Medicaid expansion, for now. The budget blocked expansion, but the block was vetoed by Gov. Kasich. While the Ohio House and Senate met today to override some vetoes, they did not vote on the expansion block… which means Medicaid expansion is still in effect in Ohio. This is good

This week, Jaime, Vashitta, and Gabe review the last week of June. Between committee hearings on abortion restrictions and late-night budget talks, it’s amazing we’re still awake.

The Ohio Senate passed the Abortion Method Ban, Senate Bill 145. We received support on the Senate floor from from Senators Charleta Tavares, Sondra Williams, and Joe Schiavoni. In Committee, Senators Cecile Thomas and Sean O’Brien led in the defense of Ohio women. The 24-9 vote was along party lines.

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This week, Jaime, Vashitta, and Gabe recorded our first episode for the radio! We’re proud to announce that NARAL’s The Morning After will air in Columbus on WGRN – 94.1FM on Friday mornings at 9 a.m.

This morning, we got our first look at the Senate plan to repeal Obamacare. The bill is a shocking plan to repeal Medicaid and provide a massive tax cut to the nation’s super-wealthy.

NARAL Pro-Choice America released this statement:

“The Republican proposal is a direct attack on the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of Americans and a savage attack on women’s healthcare in particular. It is just as cruel as the proposal approved by the House. By defunding women’s health centers, denying abortion coverage to Americans who get their insurance through the exchanges or who receive tax subsidies, and slashing healthcare for the families who need it most, it’s clear that the Trump administration and the GOP’s concern with being ‘pro-life’ only reaches as far as the nearest tax cut for millionaires.”

In Ohio news, the state operating budget passed the Ohio Senate yesterday. The bill is also seen as an attack on the health and welfare of low-income citizens. The budget bill includes $600,000 for crisis pregnancy centers.

NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland said:

“Especially in our current economic climate, the state should be using its limited tax dollars to fund programs that have a proven track record for effectiveness. By giving funding to so-called ‘crisis pregnancy centers,’ the Parenting and Pregnancy Program is directing money to centers that coerce and mislead the people turning to them for help. When women need urgent, legitimate medical advice, these facilities present inflammatory rhetoric and misleading information. These centers should not be getting state funding.”

This week, Vashitta and Gabe are joined by Elaina, the new Executive Director of the Ohio Coalition for Reproductive Choice! She joins the organization as Ohio RCRC and NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio begin a new cooperative working relationship.

Elaina go off to a busy start, joining women from across Ohio in a power visual protest at the Ohio Statehouse. Dressed as women from The Handmaid’s Tale, our volunteers silently sat as Senator Matt Huffman (R-Lima) and Senator Steve Wilson (R-Maineville) provided sponsor testimony on Senate Bill 145, the Abortion Method Ban. The bill is an unconstitutional plan to prohibit the most common procedure for 2nd trimester abortions.

This week, Jaime, Vashitta, and Gabe discussed the Comey Hearing in the US Senate. As the nation watched the former FBI director testify, other members of Congress quietly readied their plans to continue the assault on women’s health care funding.

In the Ohio Statehouse, the Six-Week Abortion Ban was introduced and the Abortion Method Ban was scheduled for a first committee hearing. Both are unconstitutional threats to abortion access in Ohio.

This week, Jaime and Gabe were thrilled to be joined by Rep. Stephanie Howse! Hailing from the east side of Cleveland, Rep. Howse is working to boost what she says is the poorest district in the state of Ohio.

Rep. Howse and Rep. Michelle Lepore-Hagan introduced House Bill 234, which creates provisions to protect women and doctors at abortion clinics across the state. She has also introduced House Bill 180, the Ohio Equal Pay Act with Rep. Kathleen Clyde.

Regular listeners will be familiar with her message that improving Ohioans economic status brings additional benefits, including better reproductive health.

NARAL’s The Morning After is a production of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.

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This week, Jaime, Vashitta, and Gabe discuss the new CBO estimate on the AHCA. Approximately 23 million Americans would lose health insurance under Paul Ryan’s plan.

In Ohio, we’re continuing to put pressure on Ohio Supreme Court Justice Sharen Kennedy to recuse herself in the Capital Care case. This week, the Columbus Dispatch weighed in:

“Justice Maureen O’Connor, however, has publicly stated that Kennedy’s speech was appropriate, noting she had not mentioned abortion or any pending case. And Kennedy, in a statement, noted she had appeared before numerous civic organizations to give a similar speech about “the founding of this republic, the Constitution and the separation of powers.” But it’s disingenuous to compare a speech to Right to Life — on any topic —with a public address at, say, the Rotary Club or a chamber of commerce. Kennedy should step aside.”

Yesterday, the Ohio House Committee on Health held a fourth hearing on HB 149, which stigmatizes abortion providers and bans fetal tissue research that’s already not happening in Ohio. The committee removed an awful requirement that physicians providing abortions be labeled as “abortionists” in state law. The remaining bill is still deeply flawed and doesn’t bring any benefit to any Ohioan.

In good news, Rep. Stephanie Howse and Rep. Michelle Lepore-Hagan introduced HB 234, which creates provisions to protect women and doctors at abortion clinics across the state.

This week, Vashitta and Gabe discuss the effort by ProgressOhio to call on state Supreme Court Justice Sharen Kennedy to recuse herself in the Capital Care Network case out of Toledo. ProgressOhio was joined by 51 different individuals and organizations signing on to the formal complaint, including NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio. Justice Kennedy participated in a fundraiser for Greater Toledo Right to Life this March, which many feel impacts her ability to be impartial in the case.