OHIO: In a significant development, Ohio voters have approved a constitutional amendment known as Issue 1, securing access to abortion and various forms of reproductive healthcare. This victory for abortion rights advocates comes in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in the previous year.
Ohio becomes the seventh state in the United States where voters have chosen to safeguard abortion access following the landmark Supreme Court ruling. Notably, it is the sole state to consider a statewide abortion rights question in the current year.
The outcome of this off-year election holds the potential to serve as a harbinger for the 2024 elections, where Democrats anticipate the abortion issue to galvanize their base and support President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. Several other states, including Arizona, Missouri, and more, are expected to vote on similar protections next year.
Ohio’s constitutional amendment, Issue 1, included some of the most robust language in support of abortion access among statewide ballot initiatives since the Supreme Court’s decision. Opponents of the amendment had raised concerns that it might jeopardize parental rights, allow unrestricted gender surgeries for minors, and potentially revive “partial-birth” abortions, which are federally banned.
Recent public opinion polls indicate that approximately two-thirds of Americans believe abortion should generally be legal during the earliest stages of pregnancy. This sentiment holds true across both Democratic and Republican-leaning states, further emphasizing the widespread support for abortion rights since the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2022.
The approval of Issue 1 in Ohio is expected to overturn a 2019 state law, passed by Republicans, which banned most abortions after detecting fetal cardiac activity, with no exceptions for cases of rape and incest. This law had been temporarily halted due to ongoing legal challenges, and it was one of several restrictive abortion laws passed by the Ohio Legislature in recent years.
Issue 1 explicitly affirms an individual’s right to make and carry out their own reproductive decisions, including those related to birth control, fertility treatments, miscarriages, and abortion. It permits the state to regulate the procedure after fetal viability, provided that exceptions are made for situations in which a doctor determines that the life or health of the woman is at risk. Viability, in this context, refers to the point at which the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the womb with reasonable medical interventions.
Throughout the campaign, anti-abortion groups, supported by Republican Governor Mike DeWine, utilized various messages in an attempt to defeat the amendment. They primarily focused on characterizing the proposal as too extreme for the state. Conversely, supporters of the amendment centered their campaign around the idea of keeping government out of families’ private matters.
This pivotal vote follows an August special election orchestrated by the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature. The special election aimed to make future constitutional changes more challenging to pass by increasing the threshold from a simple majority to 60%. One of the key objectives of this proposal was to undermine the abortion-rights measure that Ohio voters endorsed on Tuesday. However, voters overwhelmingly rejected the special election question, setting the stage for the consequential abortion campaign in the fall.
