Correction appended.
Ohio University Student Senate voted Wednesday to denounce a proposed Ohio House bill that would create a statewide ban on abortion.
Ohio House Bill 565 aims to make abortion illegal at any stage of pregnancy, even if the child was conceived through rape or incest, and even if the mother’s life is in danger. All voting members of Student Senate, with the exception of a single senator, voted to pass a bill condemning the proposed legislation. There were four abstentions.
“This is just bad public policy. It’s morally wrong, it’s wasting tax dollars, it’s unconstitutional, and I think it’s our duty as an elected body to make our voices heard and fight it every step of the way,” Off-Campus Senator Grant Adams, a primary sponsor of the bill, said.
The bill would consider “unborn humans” to be people under Ohio’s criminal code. It would make abortion punishable by law as an act of murder, manslaughter or homicide — and both the provider and patient would be held accountable.
West Green Senator Cade Plotts was the only senator to vote no on the bill.
“I don’t think this is necessarily a question about women’s rights. It’s about the rights of the unborn, who are people that can’t speak up. So we have to speak up for them,” Plotts said.
Arika Knannlein, primary sponsor of the bill and Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine senator, highlighted the problems House Bill 565 would cause for the medical community, saying that the bill is “extremely dangerous” and “harmful to physicians and patients.”
“As a physician, that would absolutely deter me from practicing in this state,” Knannlein said.
Student Senate’s bill states House Bill 565 “extinguishes women’s autonomy, ... promotes inequality by targeting women in poverty, ... poses enormous health risks” and would result in “unlicensed, unregulated and unsafe measures to receive abortion.”
Passage of Student Senate's bill means members will send letters of opposition to House Bill 565’s sponsors and co-sponsors, state representatives and corresponding House Standing Committees. It will also allow senate to encourage the students at OU and other Ohio collegiate student governments to denounce the House bill.
Senate heard a presentation from two Environmental Affairs commissioners and Kent Scott, associate director of Auxiliaries Operations at Culinary Services, about the university’s new "Green for Green" initiative. That approach seeks to reduce plastic waste by giving students a 5-cent discount on their groceries when they use reusable bags at campus markets. Additionally, students would have to pay a 5 cent fee for every plastic bag they use.
A resolution to purchase 2,000 reusable bags for university markets, in correlation with the "Green for Green" initiative, passed.
A resolution to purchase eight tickets for the Leadership Gala passed. Student Senate will not meet the evening of the event, Student Senate President Landen Lama said.
Resolutions purchasing supplies for the Student Senate office and pizza for the Senate Candidate Debate passed.
Correction: A previous version of this report misstated that senate would meet the night of the Leadership Gala. The group will not. The article has been updated to reflect the most accurate information.
