Ohioans Cast Votes to Secure Abortion Rights
Ohio voters have approved a constitutional amendment that guarantees access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care. This is a significant win for supporters of abortion rights, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Ohio is now the seventh state where voters have chosen to protect abortion access after the landmark ruling, and it was the only state to consider a statewide abortion rights question this year.
The outcome of this intense, off-year election could be a clue to what lies ahead in 2024. Democrats are hoping that the issue of abortion rights will energize their voters and help President Joe Biden keep the White House. Similar protections will be voted on next year in states like Arizona and Missouri.
Heather Williams, interim president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which aims to elect Democrats to state legislatures, called the vote in favor of abortion rights a “huge victory.”
“Ohio’s resounding support for this constitutional amendment reaffirms Democratic priorities and sends a strong message to the state GOP that reproductive rights are non-negotiable,” she said in a statement.
Ohio’s constitutional amendment, on the ballot as Issue 1, included some of the most protective language for abortion access of any statewide ballot initiative since the Supreme Court’s ruling. There were arguments from opponents that the amendment would threaten parental rights, allow unrestricted gender surgeries for minors, and revive “partial birth” abortions, which are federally banned.
Public polling shows that about two-thirds of Americans believe abortion should generally be legal in the earliest stages of pregnancy, a sentiment that has been reinforced in both Democratic and deeply Republican states since the justices overturned Roe in June 2022.
Before the Ohio vote, statewide initiatives in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont had either affirmed abortion access or turned back attempts to undermine the right.
Voter turnout for Ohio’s constitutional amendment, including early voting, was robust for an off-year election. The approval of Issue 1 will almost certainly reverse a 2019 state law passed by Republicans that bans most abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, with no exceptions for rape and incest. This law is currently on hold due to court challenges, and is one of roughly two dozen restrictions on abortion the Ohio Legislature has passed in recent years.
Issue 1 specifically declared an individual’s right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” including birth control, fertility treatments, miscarriage, and abortion.
Anti-abortion groups, with the help of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, tried various messages to defeat the amendment, primarily focusing on the idea that the proposal was too extreme for the state. The supporters’ campaign centered on keeping government out of families’ private affairs.
The latest vote followed an August special election called by the Republican-controlled Legislature that aimed to make future constitutional changes harder to pass by increasing the threshold from a simple majority vote to 60%. This proposal was partly aimed at undermining the abortion-rights measure decided on Tuesday.
Voters overwhelmingly defeated that special election question, setting the stage for the high-stakes fall abortion campaign.
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