The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
New data studying state funding for anti-abortion centers showed Ohio provided more than $22 million to groups in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturned national abortion rights.
Since 2013, the state has fed more than $35.5 million to anti-abortion funding, according to Equity Forward’s newest study of state-by-state funding for centers who are also called “ crisis pregnancy centers ,” and are often religiously affiliated facilities that provide services like ultrasounds and pregnancy tests, but have also reportedly provided outdated or debunked information about pregnancy.
The organization looked at 23 states allocating public dollars to anti-abortion centers since 1995, the year they say had “the first verifiable instance of funding,” and up to July 23 of this year.
“AACs use public dollars to fund tactics and programs that not only aim to delay, deceive and discourage those in search of abortion care but also act as an unnecessary barrier to pregnant people looking for other medical care and support services,” the report stated.