Rep. Russo: Ohio Republicans Continue to Get Between Patients and Their Doctors, Attack Evidence-based Care

COLUMBUS — State Rep. Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) yesterday condemned the passage of House Bill (HB) 324 which prohibits the use of telemedicine for essential mental health and reproductive health medications. 

“Once again, this legislature is getting between patients and their doctors,” said Rep. Russo. “Access to safe, reliable telehealth services has become a lifeline for countless Ohioans. This bill attacks evidence-based care and places unnecessary barriers between patients and the care they depend on. We should be working to expand access, not restrict it.”

HB 324 would require the Ohio Department of Health director to determine if individual drugs cause “severe adverse effects in greater than 5% of the drug’s users,” and prohibit its distribution via mail-order. Although the bill does not directly mention drugs such as mifepristone, an abortion drug that has been approved by the FDA for decades and ranks as the most common method of abortion in the U.S., sponsor and proponents of the bill referenced abortion pills in their supporting testimony, citing reports from conservative think tanks and mirroring arguments from a U.S. Supreme Court case that was thrown out for lacking legal standing. Democratic committee members offered two amendments to the bill that would require medical studies used in this determination to be peer-reviewed and evidence-based, and exempt drugs already approved by the FDA from state scrutiny. These amendments were rejected without explanation. 

Ohio voters enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution more than two years ago, but that hasn’t stopped Republican legislators from pushing for broad laws that indirectly ban access to abortions. A similar bill, Senate Bill 260, which prohibited telemedicine abortions and was signed into law in 2021, made it a felony offense for physicians to provide abortion-inducing drugs via a telehealth service. Following the constitutional amendment in 2023, enforcement of the law was struck down; however, HB 324 looks to create a new prohibition in its place.  

HB 324 now heads to the Senate.