Ohio Could Vote To Protect Abortion Rights As Latest Ballot Measure Moves Forward

Topline

Ohio could become the next state to ask voters to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution as a state board voted Monday to let a proposed ballot measure move forward and start gathering signatures, part of a broader movement by abortion rights advocates nationwide to use ballot measures to protect access in states where abortion is banned or under threat.

A pro-abortion rights activist at a protest in Dayton, Ohio, on May 19, 2019.

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Key Facts

The Ohio Ballot Board approved the proposed ballot measure Monday in a unanimous vote, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports, certifying the measure was one issue instead of multiple issues and thus able to be on the ballot in November.

The ballot measure asks voters to approve an amendment to the Ohio Constitution that would protect abortion rights until the point when a fetus is viable, stating, “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion.”

Organizers will now have to gather enough signatures for the ballot measure to appear on the ballot, and have until July 5 to submit at least 413,000 valid signatures—though the advocacy groups spearheading the effort said Monday they aim to get at least 700,000 to ensure they’re over the threshold.

Ohio has enacted a six-week abortion ban but the law is currently blocked in court—though the Ohio Supreme Court could put it back into effect—and the state’s GOP-controlled legislature has passed a number of abortion restrictions in past years.

Crucial Quote

“This grassroots initiative — by and for the people of Ohio — will create common-sense guarantees for Ohioans’ freedom to make decisions about their own reproductive health care, including abortion,” Kellie Copeland of Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, one of the groups behind the ballot measure, said in a statement Monday.

Big Number

66%. That’s the percentage of Ohio residents who say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a PRRI poll conducted between March and December 2022.

Tangent

Abortion rights supporters are aiming to get the abortion measure on the ballot in November as Republican lawmakers are trying to make it harder for ballot measures in the state to pass. The state legislature is moving forward with a constitutional amendment—which could also be on the ballot in November—that would require at least 60% of voters to approve a ballot measure for it to succeed, rather than a simple majority. Should that pass, it would likely make it much harder to pass similar abortion protections in 2024 or later. “This might be one of our last opportunities to get this done,” Dr. Laura Beene of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights said at a press briefing earlier in March.

Chief Critic

Anti-abortion opponents of the ballot measure believe it goes too far by allowing abortion up to the point of viability—usually about 23 or 24 weeks into a pregnancy—the Enquirer reports, and Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said the proposed amendment’s “language is dangerous and deceptive.”

What To Watch For

Other states could put abortion on the ballot. Efforts to get abortion-related ballot measures approved in coming election cycles are underway in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota, according to NBC News, though they’re in various stages of development. At the same time, Republican legislators are also working to raise the threshold for those measures to pass. In addition to Ohio, lawmakers in such states as Florida, Idaho, Missouri, Oklahoma and North Dakota are also considering bills that would raise the share of votes needed for ballot measures to succeed, according to Pew.

Key Background

Abortion ballot measures have gained attention as a tool for protecting abortion access in light of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in June. Since then, voters in six states have considered abortion-related measures, with all coming out in favor of abortion rights. Kansas voters struck down a ballot measure in August that would have paved the way for the state to ban abortion, followed by ballot measures in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont in November. The ballot measures are in line with public polling suggesting most voters support abortion being at least mostly legal, even in GOP-led states, making the strategy an attractive way to harness public opinion and overcome lawmakers’ bans on abortion access. The PRRI poll found a majority of voters in 43 states and the District of Columbia support abortion being legal in all or most cases, with South Dakota (42%), Utah (42%), Arkansas (43%), Oklahoma (45%), Idaho (49%), Mississippi (49%), and Tennessee (49%) being the only states where fewer backed legal abortion. No state had a majority of voters who believed the procedure should be entirely illegal in all cases, with support for abortion bans without exemptions having no more than 14% support in any state.