Portage Democratic Party to collect signatures for proposed abortion-rights amendment
The Portage County Democratic Party will host a reproductive rights petition signing from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Old Kent Jailhouse at Fred Fuller Park, 497 Middlebury Road, Kent.
The event is part of a statewide effort by abortion-rights advocates to collect 413,446 valid signatures from 44 counties to put a reproductive rights constitutional amendment on the ballot. Such an amendment would ultimately reverse Ohio's so-called "heartbeat law," which bans all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The law is undergoing legal challenges and has not taken effect.
Christopher Clevenger, vice chairman of the party, said the event is one of several the Ohio Democratic Party has organized to collect 800,000 signatures statewide. The signatures, he said, must come from voters in half of Ohio's 88 counties.
Although the event is to collect signatures primarily from Portage County voters, people from other counties can sign petitions as well.
More: Reproductive Rights Petition Signing
Those who are not registered to vote can fill out a form to register and sign the petition the same day.
More than 1,600 voters were purged from the voting rolls by the Ohio Secretary of State's Office, the League of Women Voters recently reported. Residents can check whether they are still registered to vote at the Portage County Board of Elections website in advance.
If approved by voters, Ohio lawmakers and state officials could not ban abortion until after fetal viability, which is the point in a pregnancy when physicians say a fetus can survive outside of the womb. That is typically about 23 to 24 weeks into pregnancy.
Current Ohio law prohibits doctors from performing abortions after cardiac activity is detected, which is about six weeks into pregnancy. That law, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019, is currently on hold by a court order.
Ohio Senate Republicans, meanwhile, hope to amend Ohio's constitution to make it less likely that the amendment will be approved. They're pushing forward with a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would require constitutional amendments - like the one on abortion rights - to gain 60% support from voters to pass instead of 50%. They also hope to change Ohio's voting rules to push forward with that change in an August special election.
The USA TODAY NETWORK Ohio Bureau reporter Jessie Balmert contributed to this report. Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Portage Dems collecting signatures for abortion-rights amendment
