Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, et al. v. Ohio Department of Health, et al.

The victory comes after the ACLU and partners filed two rounds of papers seeking a preliminary injunction to block the law from taking effect. On March 9, 2021, the ACLU filed the lawsuit in Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, requesting a court order that clinics not be exposed to penalties under S.B. 27. The law was set to go into effect on April 6, 2021, and an Ohio judge granted a preliminary injunction on April 5 that temporarily halted enforcement of the law, because compliance would have been impossible due to the Ohio Department of Health’s (ODH) failure to establish or issue necessary rules and regulations.

The judge’s April order prohibited ODH from enforcing the law until 30 days after the rulemaking process. ODH completed that process on January 9, 2022, with ODH set to enforce the law and its accompanying rules starting on February 8, 2022. In order to prevent this, on January 7, 2022, the ACLU sought a second preliminary injunction with the court. On January 31, 2022, the court found that S.B. 27 violates the state constitution and issued a second injunction further prohibiting its enforcement. The law will remain unenforceable at least until the state court judge issues a final judgment.

This lawsuit was filed by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the ACLU, ACLU of Ohio, along with Fanon A. Rucker of The Cochran Firm-OH on behalf of Ohio abortion providers.