Ohio Voters Take First Crucial Step To Protect Abortion Rights Ahead Of November Vote
Voters in Ohio successfully thwarted a Republican attempt to make it harder to pass a November pro-choice ballot measure.
On Tuesday, Ohioans voted to defeat Issue 1, a ballot initiative to raise the threshold for altering the state constitution from a simple statewide majority vote to 60%. Although a simple majority has been the standard in Ohio for over 100 years, anti-choice Republicans in the state called for a special election to raise the vote threshold in a preemptive attempt to block the abortion-rights constitutional amendment that will be in front of voters in November’s general election.
“Ohioans’ support for abortion access and reproductive freedom was never in question,” NARAL Pro-Choice America said in a statement issued Tuesday evening. “From defeating Issue 1 tonight to submitting nearly twice the amount of signatures needed to get a measure protecting abortion access on the ballot in November, Ohio voters have made clear that they will settle for nothing less than reproductive freedom for all. Republicans should be ashamed of their efforts to subvert the will of voters.”
Despite many Republican claims that the special election was about protecting Ohio from out-of-state special interests, it was ultimately a proxy fight over abortion rights.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, an outspoken anti-choice leader, was one of several Republicans who attempted to hide the real intent of Issue 1. He told the Washington Examiner last month that Issue 1 has “never been exclusively about abortion.” But as feminist writer Jessica Valenti pointed out, LaRose said earlier in the summer that Issue 1 “is 100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution.”
“It is a sad day for Ohio and a warning for pro-life states across the nation,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, one of the largest anti-choice organizations in the country, said in a statement issued Tuesday night.
“During this crucial election, progressives funneled in millions from outside groups to mislead the people of Ohio,” the group said. “Sadly, attacks on state constitutions are now the national playbook of the extreme pro-abortion Left.”
The outcome, which makes it easier to pass the pro-choice constitutional amendment later this year, is a huge win for abortion-rights advocates in Ohio.
If it passes, the November amendment will effectively invalidate any bans tied up in court that would seek to restrict abortion before fetal viability, which is around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy. These include a six-week abortion ban that briefly went into effect after Roe v. Wade fell in June 2022, but that was blocked in court while awaiting an Ohio Supreme Court ruling. Currently, abortion is legal through 22 weeks of pregnancy in Ohio.
The special election is also an important reminder that whenever the public has been given the opportunity to directly vote on abortion rights, it has continually protected access — in both red and blue states. A year ago, Kansans overwhelmingly voted to keep abortion protections in their state constitution in the first big vote on abortion since Roe fell. And last fall, voters protected abortion access in the five states where it was on the ballot — including in Michigan, Kentucky and Montana.
