(CP) – Gov. Mike DeWine has signed into law a measure requiring the cremation or burial of aborted babies’ remains, a move that sparked praise from pro-life groups and backlash from pro-abortion groups.
DeWine signed the Unborn Child Dignity Act into law Wednesday, just three weeks after the Ohio legislature passed the bill. Sponsored by state Sen. Joe Uecker, the Unborn Child Dignity Act requires “final disposition of fetal remains from a surgical abortion at an abortion facility (to) be by cremation or interment.”
Other provisions in the legislation require abortion facilities to “document in the pregnant woman’s medical record the final disposition determination made” and “maintain evidentiary documentation demonstrating the date and method of the disposition of fetal remains from surgical abortions performed or induced in the facility.” Anyone who fails to comply with these provisions “is guilty of failure to dispose of fetal remains humanely, a misdemeanor of the first degree.”
The Unborn Child Dignity Act is designed to reinforce a provision in Ohio state law requiring that aborted babies’ remains “shall be disposed of in a humane manner.” The legislation was spurred by a 2015 investigation conducted by DeWine, then the state’s attorney general, finding that abortion provider Planned Parenthood disposed of aborted babies’ body parts in landfills. The Unborn Child Dignity Act closely mirrors legislation passed in Indiana that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. READ MORE
