Ohio wants to revive a strict abortion law. Justices are weighing the legal arguments

By JULIE CARR SMYTH
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio Supreme Court justices have questioned the state’s lawyer about a legal strategy that Ohio is attempting in hopes of reviving its law banning abortions except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. Before Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers even finished the first sentence of his argument Wednesday, justices began peppering him with technical questions. Those questions suggested they may be reticent to step in and lift a county judge’s order that’s been blocking the law since October 2022. The state’s litigation also challenges whether Preterm Cleveland and the other Ohio clinics that brought the suit have the necessary legal standing to sue.