93: The Present and Future of Abortion in Ohio: Professor Jessie Hill
What is the current state of abortion access in Ohio, and what does the future hold? On the new episode of Prognosis Ohio, host Dan Skinner talks with Professor B. Jessie Hill, JD, who is Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Judge Ben C. Green Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law. Dan and Jessie talk about the current state of abortion access and reproductive rights generally in Ohio, and what restrictive abortion laws in Texas and Mississippi might mean for Ohio. Dan asks Jessie to share some of her personal reflections on doing this work over the past few decades, to which Hill responds that the current moment is perhaps the most pivotal moment reproductive rights advocates have experienced since the early 1970s before Roe v. Wade became law. In the episode, listeners will learn about the disjuncture between law and public opinion (a majority of Ohioans support Roe v. Wade), which Hill explains is in part a function of a theme that comes up often on Prognosis Ohio: gerrymandering. Perhaps most important, Skinner and Hill talk about what the state of things would be in Ohio if Roe were to be overturned. The episode opens with a clip from last week’s episode, in which David DeWitt, Editor-in-Chief of the Ohio Capital Journal notes that the current Ohio General Assembly has shown itself interested in passing all manner of abortion restrictions.
