Ohio Issue 1: Michigan approved abortion rights measure last year? Will Ohio follow suit?
At a historic downtown Detroit hotel and apartment building, Michigan abortion rights advocates celebrated as voters easily approved a measure to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution last November.
"There are people all across this country who absolutely believe these rights to privacy and dignity and making your own healthcare decisions are fundamental," Julie Rowe, political director for the Michigan abortion rights amendment told Detroit's WXYZ. "They're watching because they want to know: How do we protect our own rights?"
Ohio abortion rights advocates were watching.
Michigan − along with Kentucky, California, Kansas, Montana and Vermont − offers a roadmap on how to protect access to abortion in a world where the U.S. Supreme Court has sent decisions about the procedure back to state lawmakers and judges.
"We studied what happened there (in Michigan)," said Kellie Copeland, executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio, which backs the reproductive rights measure. "We also looked at what happened in Kansas and Kentucky."
But Ohio abortion opponents say Michigan offers a cautionary tale of how far reproductive rights proponents will go if the state constitution lets them. Michigan abortion rights advocates are calling for insurance to cover abortion, fewer regulations on the procedure and the repeal of parental consent requirements for minors seeking abortions.
"We are seeing in their own words what is happening in Michigan and what could happen here and what will happen here if this amendment passes," said Amy Natoce, a spokeswoman for Protect Women Ohio, which opposes the November abortion rights measure.
What can Ohio learn from its northern neighbor about abortion policy? The USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau breaks down the similarities and differences between Michigan's reproductive rights amendment and Ohio's ballot issue on Nov. 7.
What is similar? The wording
Michigan's constitutional amendment established a new individual right to reproductive freedom, including the right to make decisions about pregnancy, such as prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion, miscarriage management and infertility.
Ohio's proposal is similar but not identical. Here's a breakdown:
Like Michigan's proposal, Ohio's language focuses on an individual's right to make their own reproductive decisions. Neither proposal uses the word "woman."
Both measures allow the state to prohibit most abortions after viability, typically 23 to 24 weeks into pregnancy. Abortions could be performed later in pregnancy to protect the patient's life or health.
Ohio's measure doesn't mention "sterilization" as an expressly listed right. In Michigan, opponents latched onto that word as evidence that the measure would allow gender-affirming surgery for transgender minors without parental consent. Even without the word "sterilization," Ohio abortion opponents have made the same point.
Michigan's measure allowed abortions later in pregnancy for a patient's mental health. Ohio's proposal does not mention mental health, but opponents of the measure say a judge could interpret the language that way.
What is similar? The attack ads
Abortion opponents in Michigan launched ads saying the amendment would eviscerate parental consent for both abortions and gender-affirming surgeries for transgender minors. Opponents in Ohio are following that same playbook, describing the November measure as too extreme for the state's voters.
"The parental rights piece really stopped people in their tracks," said Genevieve Marnon, legislative director for Right to Life of Michigan, of their campaign. But ultimately, it didn't convince enough voters to vote against the Michigan measure.
"It's a fear tactic," contended Nicole Wells Stallworth, who led Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan during the ballot campaign. "Voters knew and understood that and they showed that when they came to the polls."
What is different? The timing
Michigan passed its constitutional amendment a little over four months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, sending decisions about abortion back to the states.
Michigan abortion rights proponents were collecting signatures for that measure when a draft of that Supreme Court decision was leaked to Politico. Outrage over the likely outcome led to momentum for the ballot effort, both sides of the campaign agreed.
"That leak gave them the fuel that they needed," said Marnon, with Right to Life of Michigan.
"Voters wanted to do something to protect their rights," Stallworth said. "That's really what worked in our favor."
Ohio, on the other hand, will be voting on abortion access 16 months after the U.S. Supreme Court decision and more than a year after an Ohio judge put the state's ban on most abortions on hold. As a result, the threat of losing access to abortion appears less dire and less imminent.
Abortion is currently legal in Ohio up until 21 weeks and six days. That could change based on what the Ohio Supreme Court decides, but any decision won't come until later this year.
So Ohio reproductive rights advocates keep focusing on Republicans' abortion policies, which they call extreme and out of touch.
"There's no poll that's ever been done in the state of Ohio that says Ohioans want abortions to be banned without exceptions and yet that is their agenda, and that's what we're fighting," Copeland said. "That is why this amendment is so important."
What is different? The politics
Michigan voted on abortion access in November 2022 as Democrats took full control of state government for the first time since the 1980s. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer won reelection while talking about the importance of abortion access in the state.
"Gov. Whitmer was able to make abortion a central platform of her gubernatorial race," Marnon said.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley focused much of her campaign's attention on abortion access only to lose handily to the better-known incumbent, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. Republicans control a veto-proof majority in the state Legislature, a majority on the Ohio Supreme Court and nearly all statewide elected offices.
Whitmer was a vocal proponent of abortion access. DeWine has been a staunch opponent of it, recently headlining a fundraiser with Cleveland's Catholic bishop. Michigan voted during a heated election year; Ohio will vote during an odd year with no statewide races on the ballot.
But voters, particularly younger and more progressive ones, will go to the polls for social issues, such as abortion access and marijuana legalization, said David Jackson, a professor of political science at Bowling Green State University. "Putting popular social issues on the ballot tends to draw people out to vote, and it tends to draw different people out to vote."
Abortion has always been a clear dividing line between Republicans and Democrats, but Republican leaders might be further right than their voters, Jackson said. A recent USA TODAY Network/Suffolk University poll found 81% of Democrats, 32% of Republicans and 68% of independents would back Ohio's measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
"Somebody should be blowing the alarm over there and saying, 'Kansas? Did you see what happened in Kansas, a pretty rock-hard Republican place and they voted to protect reproductive rights?'" Jackson said.
In Michigan, the abortion rights measure outperformed Whitmer by 2.7 percentage points, winning in counties that the Democratic governor did not. "That's really saying to the world that this is something that is beyond your partisan affiliation," Stallworth said.
The Detroit Free Press contributed to this article.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How does Ohio Issue 1 abortion measure compare to Michigan's?
