HAMILTON — A Butler County judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Ohio’s voter-approved abortion and reproductive rights constitutional amendment, ruling that the lawmakers who brought the case lacked standing to sue. The decision closes — at least for now — one of the most closely watched legal attacks on the 2023 amendment.
State Reps. Levi Dean (R-Xenia) and Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester), along with Lebanon City Councilwoman Kristen Eggers, filed the lawsuit earlier this year. They argued that the constitutional amendment conflicts with other sections of the Ohio Constitution and that its changes could only be made through a constitutional convention, not a ballot initiative. The defendants — then-Attorney General Dave Yost and Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser — asked the court to throw out the case, arguing the plaintiffs failed to cite any actual injury and could not distinguish their alleged harm from harm “borne by the population in general.”
The judge sided with the defense, finding the lawmakers and their co-plaintiff did not have standing to bring the lawsuit. The plaintiffs had argued they suffered “concrete injuries” from enforcement of what they called an invalid provision. The ruling preserves the amendment, which Ohio voters passed in 2023, and leaves any appeal decision to the losing parties.