Doctors who perform abortions in Ohio are one step closer to being required to tell women about the possibility of reversing a pill-induced abortion or face criminal penalties.

The Ohio Senate voted 22-10 Wednesday to OK Senate Bill 155, which would make not telling women about the experimental treatment a misdemeanor for the first offense and a felony for any subsequent offenses. Sen. Stephanie Kunze, of Hilliard, was the only Republican to vote against the measure.


The Democratic opposition to the bill focused on whether the reversal treatment even works.

"This medication is not FDA-approved," Sen. Tina Maharath, D-Columbus, said.

Medication-induced abortions require women to take two pills up to 48 hours of each other after conception. If a woman takes the first pill but not the second, it's a coin toss whether she will remain pregnant.

Supporters of the "abortion reversal" treatment say that taking progesterone — the pregnancy hormone — after a woman has taken the first abortion pill increases a woman's chances of delivering the baby. There is an ongoing clinical study at the University of California-Davis to test whether that's true, but no results have been published.

"I would like to point out that progesterone has been used in pregnancies for over 50 years," said Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, who sponsored the bill.

The Senate also passed a second abortion bill Wednesday afternoon. Senate Bill 208 would require doctors preforming abortions to report to the state if a fetus is born alive during the procedure and to provide it medical care.

"This should not even be a debate," Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, said. "We are talking about babies — babies born alive."

But Democrats said the bill is a solution in search of a problem because Ohio has had a felony on its books since 1974 that involves purposely taking the life of a fetus born alive during an abortion.

Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, said she worries that an unintended consequence of the bill, which would require doctors under penalty of law to provide life-saving medical intervention, would be to "administer futile and painful treatment against the wishes of parents" who might want only palliative care for a newborn with severe genetic abnormalities or other health conditions. The bill passed on a party-line vote.

Both bills now head to the Ohio House where Republicans have a majority of the seats.