(upbeat music) - In the week since Roe was overturned, Ohio banned, virtually all abortions and abortion rights advocates vowed to fight on.

Akron police face protests and demands for accountability.

After officers fatally shot a 25 year old after a car chase.

And get ready for legal fireworks in your neighborhood, unless your community is among those that opted out of the new state law, legalizing them.

You'll still hear them of course, they just won't be legal.

Ideas is next.

Hello, and welcome to Ideas.

I'm Mike MacIntyre.

Thanks for joining us.

Ohio has put its so-called heartbeat bill into effect that bans abortions when fetal cardiac activity is detected.

Usually about six weeks, it came swiftly following the overturning of Roe versus Wade, but abortion rights advocates, some prosecutors and a handful of big employers are defiant, a fatal shooting by Akron police sparked protests, and the city has canceled this weekend's Rib, White and Blue Festival saying it's not the right time for a city led celebration.

And the Cleveland Metropolitan School District changed the names of three school buildings because of their namesakes problematic racist past.

We'll talk about those stories and the rest of the week's news on the reporter's round table.

Joining me this week from Ideas Stream Public Media, Health Reporter, Lisa Ryan, and Senior Reporter Kabir Bhatia.

In Columbus State House News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to round table.

Ohio is implemented the heartbeat bill banning most abortions at around six weeks.

Once fetal cardiac activity is detected.

Groups are challenging the law, even as lawmakers look toward a total abortion ban in the state.

Starting with you, Karen, the so-called heartbeat bill is now in place.

The speed that it went to effect may have caught some by surprise.

- Yeah, I think it did, especially people who had appointments at the clinics that provide abortion.

There are nine clinics that provide abortion in Ohio six of which provide surgical abortions that all nine of them provide medication abortions, which are the most commonly prescribed abortions.

And those clinics remain open a according to pro-choice Ohio, but last weekend, they had to scramble to try to accommodate the new rules.

What happened was just hours after that Supreme court decision, there was a attorney general debuts went and asked a federal judge to lift the hold on the six week abortion ban.

And so that essentially shut down a lot of, well, really all surgical abortions for the most part.

And so Pro-Choice Ohio says that meant clinics were trying to help people who had appointments, get abortion care they needed in other states and in other places.

And so this is continuing from what I understand, but yeah, this was a real surprise, I think.

- Quickly, Karen, the idea of a full ban on abortion in Ohio, that's likely to happen given what the signals we've heard and the makeup of the super majority of Republicans and the legislature, when might that happen, it would they're out for recess, right?

So it wouldn't be for months or could there be the idea that they'd come back?

- Well, there is an August 2nd primary that is scheduled for state legislators.

There's 99 members of the Ohio house and 17 members of the Ohio Senate who are up for election or reelection.

And so that's the focus right now.

They have to campaign for the August 2nd primary.

And then of course there would be the November general election.

The plan was to come back after the November election and then perhaps enact a total ban on abortion.

And certainly there are state lawmakers who support that there is a bill that already is been proposed.

That would do that.

It's been proposed actually several times, whether there's an urgency or not.

I'm not sure.

I mean, if the six week ban essentially stops nearly all abortions, I don't know if there's any view that there is a rush to try to get something done.

And lawmakers said they wanted to see the language of the do's decision before they did anything.

- Lisa, you did some reporting this week.

And in fact, we've had some really incredible and impactful reporting.

You and Amy Atkins and Stephanie Czekalinsky and Ryan Lowe being out there amongst really everybody with reaction to this, it's a deeply personal issue.

And it's also a very public one.

But tell me a little bit about, you know, what you found and the impact that this ruling might have really on specific populations.

- Yes, it is definitely going to affect black women in Ohio, more than other women.

Black women die at a higher rate than white women in due to pregnancy related causes.

So that's a huge issue.

And the us in general has maternal mortality rate that is far higher than most developed countries.

So black women are dying at a higher rate.

So a lot of people that I spoke to who are pro-choice view this as a situation where a person might choose to get an abortion, because it is a life threatening.

It's a risky, you know, pregnancy is not easy.

It's not an easy thing.

So a lot of people who are pro-choice want to see that choice, especially for black women who are disproportionately affected by that, I also thought it was interesting that black women make up nearly half of the abortions that occur in Ohio while black people make up only 13% of Ohio's population.

So that's a huge difference.

Disproportionately abortion patients are black.

So I thought that was interesting as well.

- When I've talked to people and getting perspective from women on this often, what we're hearing now is, is people saying, well, you have to have a good reason for wanting to have an abortion.

You know, you it would be burdensome to be a parent or those other things.

What about simply the idea that I don't want to be pregnant?

- Yes, I think that that's a, (clearing throat) sorry, a commonly held belief, actually that I spoke with a woman who got an abortion when she was 24, she later married the person who had gotten her pregnant.

And she had just decided that she didn't want children, not at that time, possibly, not ever, but it's potentially just a decision that some people make.

They, they just don't want children, not because of any specific reason.

Like they can't financially handle it or anything like that, but some people make that choice.

- Karen, it makes me think of the tweet that I saw this week.

The daughter-in-law of the attorney general, Dave Yost.

Dave Yost who is pushing for the heartbeat bill, who is saying that the constitution does not protect abortion, clearly an abortion opponent.

His daughter-in-law puts out a tweet saying, here's my beautiful daughter.

She's the one that I gave birth to after two abortions and abortions are my choice, my right, et cetera.

And then his son followed up in support of his wife.

Just interesting how, when we talk about how this divides people and there's discussion and debate and some of it not productive, that's going on, it's also playing out at those levels.

- Yeah, I think this is a divisive issue among families and among generations.

And I think we're going to find this out as this debate continues.

And you're hearing people like Dave Yost and governor Mike DeWine say that the debate needs to be civil, that there are passions on both sides so far.

We haven't seen really any violence on the pro-choice side.

The violence seems to have been coming from clashes with police and other incidents that though there were a couple of scuffles.

I think there was a someone running for office in a one state who punched an opponent.

You know, I mean, this is definitely an issue that does really potentially divide people because of where people stand.

Many people are for many people are against.

And there's very little room to move though there are the polls show, a tremendous, there's a tremendous amount of support in the middle for some sort of abortion restrictions, maybe not banning abortion, maybe not completely allowing abortion, some sort of support for that middle.

And that's really where before Roe versus Wade was overturned, a lot of states were.

And so we're, I think we're gonna find out that there are a lot of families and a lot of friend groups and, and all that sort of thing that are very divided over this issue.

- Kabir, let's talk about some of the things I alluded to at the beginning the conversation too.

Prosecutors, Michael O'Malley in Cuyahoga County, the prosecutor in the city of Columbus as well say, okay, you've put this law in front of me.

I decide what laws I actually enforce, I guess, or which ones I go after people for.

And we're not going after abortion providers or people who are seeking abortions.

- Yeah and a lot of folks maybe forget the part of that.

It's the, also the providers that he has said were not going to be going after, right?

Of course, certainly if somebody has to travel to a different state, I think in the letter, the phrasing that was used was that it's a mockery of justice to pursue these folks, whether it's the providers or the people who are going for services, also Zach Klein in Columbus downstate.

So those are the only two in Ohio that signed onto this letter.

There was about 90 of them around the country that signed onto this letter saying we are not going to pursue this in our counties.

Unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, there's about 3000 counties in the United States.

So 90 out of 3000, we haven't heard from Sherry Bevin Walsh in summit county.

We haven't heard from anybody else in Ohio.

So we'll see if this letter gets more signee from our state.

- Likewise, I wanted to ask about big employers and what they're doing.

So we have some prosecutors that are not gonna prosecute, even though that law is in place.

There are employers who realize, as you just mentioned, people might have to go outta state to have these services.

The employers are saying, okay, we're gonna cover your travel.

- There's several giant Eagle around here, Kroger, the calves who also includes the charge and the monsters.

And I think all the employees who work at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, all of those companies are saying to some extent, we're gonna cover the cost if you do after travel for these services or I think in Amazon's case, it's a capped amount that you get for anything that's sort of like this, but all of them are saying, yeah, we're going to cover this.

And I think there's more employers that are probably gonna sign on and say, we'll do the same thing.

- Karen, is it unlikely that there would be further legislation that would make it illegal to travel, to get an abortion for an example or any other of these, these workarounds that people will have to do that there could be some legislation that would address that?

- Well, the, ACLU is certainly prepared for that.

And I will say that there is already a bill that's modeled after the Texas law that would allow for people to sue other people, for helping people to get abortions.

So there are other pieces of legislation that haven't proposed, whether they pass or not.

I don't know, because again, the six week ban essentially Outlaws most abortions in Ohio.

And whether lawmakers feel that that is enough, or whether they wanna come back and do some of these other activities that will be, I guess, to be debated the idea of banning people, traveling from one state to another, which is just kind of really amazing for a lot of people to consider that you wouldn't be able to go from one state to another that's something that certainly is getting some traction in other states.

But I haven't heard that in Ohio.

- Lisa, the end of Roe created a situation with the morning after pill, which is different from medical abortion, right?

The medic, the whole idea of a medical abortion, where a doctor has to be present.

You take a medication that ends the abortion morning after pill a little bit different one you can get from a pharmacy yourself.

- Yes, yeah.

You can get certain types of the morning after pill over the counter without a prescription.

And that is really just a contraceptive it's stopping a person from becoming pregnant.

So that's really the difference between that.

- And you have to do it right away, literally like.

- It's 72 hours.

- Not almost the morning after.

- [Lisa] Yes.

- So what I've understood though, is that pharmacies are now limiting that either in anticipation of, or already experiencing higher demand.

- Yeah, and I think that the reason for that is not just because people are obviously concerned that they might not have access to abortion, but that in the future, they might not have access to contraceptives either.

I mean, in justice, Clarence Thomas's concurring opinion.

He said that, you know, contraceptives, same sex marriage, other protections that were made possible due to Roe V Wade might no longer be present in the future due to other rulings.

So we might see that in the future, I looked it up.

Plan B doesn't expire for three to four years because I was like, well, are people just stocking up on this?

And then they're not even gonna be able to use it before it expires, but it is about three to four years depending on the brand.

So it is possible, I suppose to kind of stock up.

If you feel like you might need that, if you might not have access to certain contraceptives.

(upbeat music) - The family of a man shot and killed by Akron police, following a chase, say they want answers and accountability from police 25 year old, Jalen Walker died from multiple gunshot wounds.

After police say he fled an attempted traffic stop.

His family an't the only ones that are demanding answers, there was a protest in Akron yesterday, blocking the street in front of police headquarters.

Concerns about protests have led the city to close several streets until Tuesday and canceled the big downtown Rib, White and Blue celebration that had been planned for the holiday weekend.

Mayor Dan Horrigan said, he feels strongly that this is not the time for a city led celebration could be police say more time is needed to collect information protests though, have protesters have made their decision.

Some of the language was rather strong and harsh yesterday murderers.

They were calling police officers real test for the new police chief Steven Myllet.

- That's true.

And Myllet has been on well less than a year has been on the job.

It's almost exactly a year since he was named.

So this is the first big officer involved shooting.

That's come under his watch prior shootings, whether in Akron or in Cleveland, you know, the way they've been handled by police and by the Police Union and the aftermath and attorneys for the family, sometimes they drag on for years.

So I think that what he's doing is they've already outsourced the, and I hate to use that term outsource the investigation to BCI.

So they'll be handling that kind of a party without a dog in the fight in this case.

So this will be a test to see how it's actually handled and what the outcome is.

- Interesting that they canceled a huge celebration.

This is not like a little party.

The Rib White and Blue is downtown.

Has people coming for a holiday weekend?

It was in advance.

It's sort of a prophylactic closing, partly because you don't wanna be seen as celebrating, but also what is the city afraid would happen?

- Well, I don't want to speak for the city as far as their fears or not, but all the events and even the city buildings like city services, you know, if you're going to the courthouse earlier this week, all of those have been closed down or they've got limited services.

And I think it's just a, as they said in the release, it's not the time for celebrating, but lots of streets are closed around the police station.

I was down there yesterday, actually.

And I thought at first I thought, what is go, are they doing more construction here on main street?

This is than I quickly realized, oh, they're just gearing up for possible protest.

- And there's been several police involved shootings in action in recent months.

- Sure, there there's definitely been several.

This is the first one that do you remember about 10 years ago, there was the one in Cleveland with, there was a couple and they went, it was 30 minutes or so this is the first one in Akron that's been like that in a long time, in recent memory where somebody was in a pursuit and there was multiple units and then they were on foot.

And there's a question about what happened.

- Speaking of that question, we should get a whole lot more information.

When we see body cam footage, the law in Akron is with within seven days, you're going to get at least three different videos.

And then within a month, every video from every body cam, the city has said, the police department has said, we're gonna release them all at once.

The deadline for that would be Sunday.

So we may see Sunday, the specifics of this.

We're hearing reports that it could be as many as 90 bullets that have been, that had been fired.

The question is whether or not the young man was armed at the time?

A lot of questions that I think we we'll get some answers to perhaps on Sunday.

- Some answers the report is that, that he fired a gun during the pursuit from the vehicle.

And then there was a gun found in the vehicle, so.

- [Mike] Not confirmed, but that's what I hear from this.

- Right his is what police are saying.

And according to the attorney for the family, there were seven white officers, one black officer who did the firing.

So that's eight body cameras that likely will be released on Sunday.

Unfortunately in Akron, there are no dash cams in cruisers.

So there's no video of when, I mean, I'm not sure when they would've activated the body cam, but based on what we've heard, there might not be video of the actual shoot.

And police have said that part of the reason they've delayed and not done it even sooner, they wanted to talk to the family and show it to them first.

They don't want 'em to see it on social media.

- Last point and that is the city of Akron will not be ignored.

The police department will be the ones that investigate this.

It's been handed over to the state.

- The state is going to be doing the investigation.

As I said, they are somewhat impartial.

The police union, they're going back and forth, whether that's allowed.

So the police union, I would imagine, probably wants Akron police to do the investigating.

So it's going back and forth on how exactly this will shake out.

Maybe they'll do it in concert.

Maybe they bring in, get another body.

We don't know.

- Okay, lots of questions.

Again, this weekend should shed some light on that.

We'll be continuing to cover that story.

(upbeat music) The algal bloom predicted to form in Lake Erie this summer will be smaller than last year's.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Algal blooms, by the way, form on lake Erie in the Western basin, each summer fed by runoff from farms, the blue green algae can produce a toxin that impacts drinking water and recreation on the lake.

And Lisa you'll remember in Toledo where people couldn't drink water a few years ago because of this toxin.

- Oh, absolutely.

That's the biggest concern that the water supply is deemed too dangerous to drink.

And actually that causes families in Toledo to pay more for their water every year.

It's about $100 a year per family, just to filter this toxin out of the water.

But as you mentioned, you know, smaller doesn't necessarily mean better.

The toxins could just be more concentrated.

- Right, it sounds great that the lower forecast is great for lake lovers, but again, smaller blooms could concentrate those toxins.

This is a real problem.

And it gets down to not just what you do about the lake, but what you do way far away from the lake, which is how we're using fertilizer, manure.

The runoff that comes from that.

I know I saw a documentary at the Cleveland International Film Festival about that this year and about how it's affecting lake Erie, but this problem has not been tackled.

- Yeah, well, that's why the state is actually incentivizing farmers financially to try to reduce their fertilizer runoff.

So that's obviously a huge issue.

We're also learning how much rain is connected to these algal blooms as well.

So we saw slightly less rain than in previous years, which is why they're thinking that this is a smaller bloom.

(upbeat music) - The Cleveland Metropolitan School District will rename three elementary schools.

The board of education voted this week to change the names of Patrick Henry Elementary School, Louis Agassiz Elementary School and Thomas Jefferson International Newcomers Academy, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were slave holders.

Augusta believed black people were inferior to white people.

Patrick Henry Elementary be known as Stephanie Tubbs Jones elementary, Louis Agassiz Elementary will become Mary Church Terrell Elementary and Thomas Jefferson International Newcomers Academy will now be known as Nativida Pagan International Newcomers Academy.

Kabir wasn't a quick decision.

This was a process.

I, you know, we've been covering it, but community involvement about whether the name is, is questionable and objectionable, and then what it should be named.

This was a real inclusive process, it seems.

- Yeah, they started this about a year ago and Eric Gordon, the CEO said, we need to reexamine these.

There is at least one other school that they were considering that might still happen in the future.

There's others that they're considering.

And they went to the community and said, hey, you know, what do you think about these people's history?

Number one, number two, how do we choose the new names?

And one of the metrics was that they had to have been deceased for at least five years.

So the three folks that you name, they all have some connection to CMSD.

Some of 'em going back to the 1800s and that's how they pick those names.

And as I said, there could be others coming in the future.

- Yeah that's an interesting thing, Lisa.

It's not this isn't the end of it.

If there are other objections found on the other thing about naming schools after human beings is information could come out.

So there could be many name changes.

- Yeah, absolutely.

You know, and then our thoughts on these people might change as well.

So not only might we already know that information, but you know, information changes, whereas before it might have been okay, that, you know, a person held these racist ideas because the majority of Americans did as well.

You know, we might see our opinions of people change as well.

(upbeat music) - The USA will markets independence on Monday, but you might be hearing fireworks already in your neighborhood.

Unlike previous years now setting off consumer grade fireworks in Ohio is legal, but not in every community.

We welcome now to the round table for her debut is Isabella Keller from Ohio university.

She's been our intern for, I don't know, month or so, and got a little bit more time left to do.

And for most of that month, Isy, you've been working on a big story about the change in law for fireworks.

- Today, fireworks are legal in specific municipalities around Ohio, thanks to a new Ohio house bill called House Bill 172.

- So what that bill did in the past, let's just reset in the past.

You could buy fireworks.

And first there was a thing that says, I promise I'll bring 'em outta state.

Well, you're not really going to.

And if you hear 'em in your neighborhoods, you know, they're being blown off, but you're like, I thought that was illegal.

Well, they just do what the state said was now.

Yeah, they're illegal.

They're legal in windows around holidays.

This is the first one, the 4th of July holidays.

So conceivably, you should be able to set them off, but there was a clause in there, right?

That cities didn't have to do it.

So what happened then?

- So we so bigger cities decided to not opt into this law because there's more people, there's more structures.

It's more, there's more of, I think, a perceived danger and you see a lot of midsize to smaller cities opting, you know, adopting the law.

So, you know, you have like, you know, places in Erie county, places in Lorraine county, you know, Mahoning county, a lot of different places adopting it.

- And yet in Cleveland, for example, it's illegal.

- [Keller] Yes.

- By the way, you're gonna hear a lot of fireworks in Cleveland.

(Kabir laughing) I was in West Park for a 4th of July at once and trying to drive back to my house.

And it was like, we are under fire.

There was, people were, I think they were just like shooting roaming candles at each other from across the street.

So you'll hear a lot of those.

So that's a good question.

It's illegal in Cleveland, it's illegal in a number of cities that you looked at and you can find that story online right now at wksu.org, ideastream.org, but enforcing, it's not easy.

- No, it's not at all.

And I talked to a couple elected officials for the story and they all agreed.

It's not easy.

And it's a difficult, you know, charge to enforce.

So I think that on the cities that adopted the law, think that it'll make it easier for law enforcement to enforce it because there's now specific dates and times where, you know, fireworks are allowed to be shot off.

And then, you know, on the other side there, the kind of response is police are going to do what they can with what they have.

So it's, you know, what resources that they do have.

- I think if the police officer rides down the street real slow, everyone books, you know, like I didn't do that.

No, but you can't really get busted unless they see a light of views.

It seems there might be some evidence around circumstantial.

That's what all of us curbside lawyers would say, not us, by the way, I don't do fireworks.

I used to back in the day, I used to sell fireworks, literally outta the back of my, the back of my 77 Chevy Nova.

It was not very safe, but I'm just, it's not into it.

Now, what about you guys?

I mean, you'll hear a lot in your neighbor.

You're in Cleveland.

- Oh yeah, I mean, if you were listening to the round table last week, you heard my neighbor, Ken Schneck talking about are across the street neighbors that have a whole display.

and it is absolutely terrible.

As you were saying it, it feels like we're under fire.

It feels like there are explosions outside of our window and our dogs.

- [Mike] And you call police and they laugh that as Ken.

- Oh, absolutely.

I haven't seen a police officer on the 4th of July ever and our dogs hate it.

They absolutely do.

- Yeah, good point and Kabir.

Are they crazy in Hudson as well?

- Well, Hudson is where American fireworks is hi John, John the so guy, family.

So we live not very close to American fireworks.

So anytime if anyone does report it, we either blame it on them.

Or we say, it's the other Indian family on the valley.

(laughing) Which there isn't one.

By the time they figure that out, we've gone inside.

- Monday on The Sound of Ideas on 89.7 WKSU, the team is off in observance of the July 4th holiday.

In our time slots, we will air the final installments of the arc of justice podcast series.

We'll air part three at 9:00 AM looking at the history of white brutality, part four airs at 9:00 PM covering the topic of reparations.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks so much for watching and stay safe.