2nd stay sought against Ohio law on aborted fetal remains

By JULIE CARR SMYTH
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio abortion providers have again sued to block a state law requiring that fetal remains from surgical abortions be cremated or buried. Clinics, through their lawyers at ACLU of Ohio, argue in a Hamilton County court that the new law imposes a funeral ritual on every patient, regardless of religious or spiritual belief, removing their autonomy. A judge already stayed the law once on grounds a lack of state rules made compliance impossible. Rules were finalized Dec. 30. The law replaces an earlier one that required aborted fetuses to be disposed of “in a humane manner,” but without defining “humane.”