1). “Destroying Democracy to Ban Abortion: Ohio Republicans say they'll strip the courts of power to stop Issue 1”, Nov 10, 2023, Jessica Valenti, Abortion Every Day, at < https://jessica.substack.com/
2). “Issue 1 passed in Ohio, protecting abortion rights — now what?”, Nov 9, 2023, Morgan Trau, Ohio Capital Journal, at < https://ohiocapitaljournal.
3). “Ohio Republicans Say It's Their ‘God Given Right' to Restrict Abortion Access”, Nov 10, 2023, Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, at < https://www.msn.com/en-us/
4). “The Lessons of Ohio’s Abortion-Rights Victory: Tuesday’s election results in that state and elsewhere offer fresh evidence of how the issue is likely to help Democrats in 2024”, Nov 9, 2023, Peter Slevin, The New Yorker, at < https://www.newyorker.com/
5). “Here are the states where abortion access may be on the ballot in 2024”, Nov 8, 2023, Geoff Mulvihill (reporter for the Associated Press), PBS NewsHour, at < https://www.pbs.org/newshour/
Introduction by dmorista: On Tuesday, November 7, 2023, the people of Ohio voted overwhelmingly, 56.6% to 44.4%, to include abortion and other reproductive health-care rights in the Ohio State Constitution. And that election result was in spite of a never-ending campaign of disinformation, propaganda, political and legal maneuvers by the Forced-Birth forces. That included presenting proposal on the ballot with a so-called summary; that was larded up with force-birth talking points and terminology and that was, in fact, longer than the actual amendment itself. The Republican Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, refused to make the actual text of the amendment available to voters, and only his distorted and inaccurate disinformation text was placed on the ballots. And the tactics and methods used were not just limited to the disinformation around the text of Proposal 1, but included a wide variety of stratagems. The Catholic Church of Akron spent $1 million in fighting Proposal 1, and clearly in an honest administration would lose its tax-exempt status. Every significant Republican politician in Ohio tried to derail Proposal 1, from the lying Governor Mike Dewine and his wife, to the dishonest and scheming Secretary of State Frank La Rose, to the Ohio Attorney General David Yost, to ultra-reactionary Senator J. D. Vance, to Trump Operative (and failed Speaker candidate) Jim Jordan, among many others.
But the win on Tuesday, Nov 7, is not the end of the political struggle. In fact the fight to reestablish abortion and reproductive health-care rights in Ohio is just starting. The immediate response has been for the 27 of 67 Republicans in the Republican controlled Ohio House of Representatives to post a letter on November 8 that included this statement: “We will do everything in our power to prevent our laws from being removed ….”. And by the next day, November 9, The Ohio House of Representatives “135th General Assembly” posted a statement entitled “DECEPTIVE OHIO ISSUE 1 MISLED THE PUBLIC BUT DOESN'T REPEAL OUR LAWS”, that statement includes such gems as: “Representative Beth Lear (R-Galena) stated, 'No amendment can overturn the God given rights with which we were born.' ” Clearly these self-appointed messengers of the Almighty think they have the right to force the women of Ohio to live under their primitive and punitive regime, and like tyrants and authoritarians over the centuries freely claim divine guidance and power. These two early proclamations by the Ohio State House force-birth operatives are reproduced along with the articles and commentary here.
The passage of Proposal 1 in Ohio takes the electoral political struggle into a new area. Up until now constitutional amendments and proposals voted on, since the discredited partisan hack U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, have either been passed in Blue States that have administrations that are sympathetic to women's reproductive health-care and abortion rights (California, Michigan, and Vermont); or have involved rejections of attempts to restrict state constitutional protections for abortion rights (Kansas, Montana, and Kentucky). In the Ohio victory for Proposal 1 the Women's Abortion and Reproductive Health-care proponents have forced through an initiative that changes the laws / constitution in a state with a Forced-birth ruling regime. Not too surprisingly the reactionaries who are in power in Ohio plan to use every conceivable method to frustrate the clear intent of the majority of the people of the state (a will manifested twice, first in the defeat of the attempt to change the proposal process that was defeated on August 8, 2023 and then the actual Proposal 1 vote). The Forced-Birth fanatics have already said they will move to take the decisions to strip the Ohio Judiciary of the power, that they currently hold, to invalidate the 31 Laws restricting Abortion access, that have been passed by the Reactionary Controlled Ohio State Legislature since 2011. As Item 2) “Issue 1 passed in Ohio, protecting abortion rights — now what?”, points out:
“Is the amendment in effect?
Not yet. It takes effect on Dec. 7, 2023.
Are all the restrictions gone, and is abortion totally legal?
No. Each restriction needs to be taken to court and repealed.
There have been 31 abortion restrictions passed since 2011, according to OURR {Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, dm}.
However, Democrats can propose legislation that would eliminate all of the restrictions — and they plan to do so. It is significantly more likely that this will be dealt with in court, considering the GOP has a supermajority and it would be shocking to see them pass protections for abortion.”
The win in Ohio, was the 7th straight win for Abortion Rights and Reproductive Health-care in a row in the last 15 months; in response to this string of successes there are now proposals and movements to bring similar initiatives to some 12 states, namely Arizona, Missouri, Florida, Nevada, Colorado, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Maryland, New York, Washington, and Minnesota (There are also anti-abortion activists working on ballot measures in Iowa and Colorado.) In addition let's not forget that, even in arch-reactionary controlled Mississippi, a fetal personhood amendment proposal in 2011 lost decisively with a typical 58% – 41% vote, like we see over and over. Of course, in Mississippi, the state legislature in response rescinded the the citizen proposal alternative completely, eventually reinstating it with the BLATANT EXCLUSION of ABORTION AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH-CARE PROPOSALS.
In some of these states the ruling Forced-birth operatives are already using, and can be expected to continue to use, extremely ruthless and vicious tactics; to try to avoid more embarrassing losses on this pivotal issue. As an example, in Missouri the Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft estimated that an Abortion and Reproductive Health Care proposal win would cost the state the absurd figure of $51 Billion and tried to see that the ridiculous figure would be posted along with any Abortion Rights initiative. The actual figure that the Republican State Treasurer, Vivek Malek, had estimated was $51 Thousand. Malek, no friend of the Abortion Rights movement, said that his main responsibility was to provide accurate financial information. He refused to provide absurd estimates of the cost of such an initiative. Andrew Bailey, the Republican Missouri Attorney General, has stated that if an Abortion Rights proposal passed he would refuse to enforce it. He therefore tried to assign the cost of contracting with and paying independent counsel to do, estimated at around $25 million, as a cost of the Abortion Rights Proposal. All the maneuvering was clearly intended to keep the Missouri Abortion Rights Proposal's proponents from gathering signatures until as late as possible. For those of you here who remember the name, the current Missouri Secretary of State, Jay Ashcroft is the equally reactionary and loathsome son of one-time U.S. Attorney General and Missouri Politician John Ashcroft. The senior Ashcroft ,had the distinction of losing the 2000 Senatorial election to a dead man, Democrat Mel Carnahan, who had already died in a (somewhat mysterious) plane crash before the election. Carnahan's widow took the seat.
Other early attempts at derailing and frustrating Abortion and Reproductive Health-care initiatives include the blatantly illegal actions by reactionary forced-birth politicians in: “South Dakota, where petitioners had to sue over mandates that they not collect signatures in certain high-traffic areas.” (See Item 1 above for the excerpt). “a South Dakota Auditor had banned petitioners from gathering signatures in front of two government buildings ….” {See “Abortion, Every Day (5.11.23)”, “Arizona woman forced to carry baby to term despite fatal diagnosis”, May 11, 2023, Jessica Valenti, at < https://jessica.substack.com/
Another complicated struggle is going on in Florida. Infamously the DeSantis regime struck back against the State Ballot initiative that restored voting rights to felons who have served the prison sentences with a series of arrests of African-Americans who registered to vote and showed them being paraded on their way to jail, on TV, for registering to vote (most of them had been encouraged to do so by state or local officials). Now this corrupt and vicious regime has its Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody working on several gambits to derail a proposal to establish Abortion and Reproductive Health-care rights in Florida. This is discussed in some detail, along with a couple of other issues whose adherents want to use the proposal method to bypass the Regimes headlock in the Florida State Legislature in Tallahassee, in posts by Valenti and an excellent newspaper article. (See, “Petitions in peril? Groups worry Florida high court shift may unravel amendment process”, Oct 3, 2023 updated Oct 4, 2023, Douglas Soule, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida, Tallahassee Democrat, at < https://www.tallahassee.com/
Finally a challenge to the oft-quoted "Ohio is a very Red State" meme, that nearly every media outlet, including much of the alternative media, all cite endlessly and without questioning. Ohio is the first major ultra-reactionary takeover of a relatively evenly split state, in partisan terms. The stratagems and methods to purge Democratic Voters and turn Ohio into “a Red State” have been going on relentlessly since the Bush the Younger Regime. The endless attacks on the voters of the state, who are not reactionaries, have been legion and constant. From the attacks by the Secretary of State on voter registration drives, including B.S. about the thickness of the card stock that new voter registrations were recorded on and turned in on, have done their work. The Republicans have also gerrymandered the state to obtain a veto-proof super majorities in the State Legislature, despite the relatively even partisan nature of the electorate. Ohio is the northern / midwestern example of the same methods used in Texas and Florida to keep the changing demographics of those states from changing the political realities the rulers there must contend with. In the "Good Old Days" African American and othe Democratic leaning districts only had to endure waiting for 8 to 10 hours in often cold or cold rainy weather to vote, while reactioinary districts had wait times of from zero to maybe 10 minutes.
Here below are citations for Ohio State Legislature posts about tactics to attack the new Ohio Constitutional Amendment, originally from Abortion-every-day.
Linked to in Line 1 of Paragraph 2, of Item 1). above, “Destroying Democracy to Ban Abortion: ….”. The link is at, “First, twenty-seven Republican House members signed onto a letter saying, ….”, from Jessica Valenti's substack article.
A). “After this press release, 27 of 67 GOP members of the Ohio House condemned the passage of Issue 1”, N.D., Morgan Tau, X, at < https://twitter.com/
Linked to in Line 1 of Paragraph 4, of Item 1). above, “Destroying Democracy to Ban Abortion: ….”. The link is at, “But in this press release, Republican legislators make clear they’re not just going to do everything within their power—but anything outside of it, as well.”, from Jessica Valenti's substack article.
B). “DECEPTIVE OHIO ISSUE 1 MISLED THE PUBLIC BUT DOESN'T REPEAL OUR LAWS: Foreign Billionaires Don't Get to Make Ohio Laws”, Nov 9, 2023, Republican Newsroom, at <https://ohiohouse.gov/news/
Abortion Struggles after 2023 Election
Images of the two Ohio State House of Representatives documents are posted here below. Then below those two documents there are copies of Items 3 & 4. Articles from The Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker respectively. I posted these because of any problems with accessing these articles for those who do not subscribe to these two fine magazines.
Document Posted on X (formerly Twitter) by Ohio Journalist Morgan Tau.
Tau is the WEWS (Cleveland Ohio TV Station) statehouse reporter
After this press release, 27 of 67 GOP members of the Ohio House condemned the passage of Issue 1. "We will do everything in our power to prevent our laws from being removed based upon perception of intent."
https://twitter.com/MorganTrau/status/1722398058833457566
Ohio Republicans Say It's Their ‘God Given Right' to Restrict Abortion Access
Story by Nikki McCann Ramirez • Nov 10, 2023
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ohio-republicans-say-it-s-their-god-given-right-to-restrict-abortion-access/ar-AA1jJC7u?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=a81cdce46a884c7b866bb0e7f20326b9&ei=7
Ohio Republicans are claiming a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, which was approved by voters in Tuesday's election, doesn't actually do that - and they're promising to take steps to prevent the legal protection of reproductive freedom in the state.
"To prevent mischief by pro-abortion courts with Issue 1, Ohio legislators will consider removing jurisdiction from the judiciary over this ambiguous ballot initiative," Ohio House Republicans wrote in a statement released Thursday. "The Ohio legislature alone will consider what, if any, modifications to make to existing laws based on public hearings and input from legal experts on both sides."
Ohio banned abortion in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, but legal challenges to state's abortion laws left residents' reproductive rights in limbo until Tuesday's ballot measure. The strategy Republicans are now proposing would essentially strip Ohio's courts of the authority to repeal existing abortion restrictions before the new amendment goes into effect on December 7.
"No amendment can overturn the God-given rights with which we were born," state Rep. Beth Lear (R-Galena) added in the Republican's statement. Another representative, Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester), claimed the referendum had only passed due to "foreign election interference."
Rep. Bill Dean (R-Xenia) said the amendment "doesn't repeal a single Ohio law," and that its language is "dangerously vague and unconstrained, and can be weaponized to attack parental rights or defend rapists, pedophiles, and human traffickers."
Ohio is not the only state where Republicans are attempting to undermine pro-choice ballot initiatives endorsed by constituents. In Michigan, two anti-choice activist groups are working with Republican lawmakers to sue the state and block the implementation of that state's voter-approved constitutional amendment.
Stacey LaRouche, press secretary to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, told The Detroit News that "it shouldn't be lost on people that these right-wing organizations and radical Republicans in the Michigan Legislature are cherry-picking courts to try to once again overturn a constitutionally guaranteed right because they can't win with voters."
Ballot measures supporting reproductive freedom have been approved in all seven states where they have been put to voters. Despite Republicans claiming that the end of Roe signified the return of the abortion issue to the will of individual states, they clearly remain determined to undermine reproductive rights no matter what any state's voters have to say about them.
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The Lessons of Ohio’s Abortion-Rights Victory: Tuesday’s election results in that state and elsewhere offer fresh evidence of how the issue is likely to help Democrats in 2024.
Nov 9, 2023, Peter Slevin, The New Yorker, at < https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-lessons-of-ohios-abortion-rights-victory >
Starting last spring, volunteers fanned out across Ohio—at farmers’ markets, brewpubs, supermarkets, athletic fields—to try to persuade half a million people to sign a petition to get a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights on the November ballot. One afternoon, at Silk Road Textiles, in Cincinnati, among shelves of needlework books, two silver-haired volunteers sat at a table displaying stickers that said “O-H-I-Roe” and “Restore Roe,” mottos designed to indicate that the proposed amendment would be anything but radical. As one of the organizers walked in, a volunteer called out, “We’ve had a really good day!” A few dozen signatures in the book, several hundred thousand to go. The immediate goal was to neutralize a law, passed and signed by Ohio Republicans—now blocked while under review by the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court—prohibiting almost all abortions after about six weeks, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
On Tuesday, what started as a grassroots initiative with an uncertain outcome turned into the biggest victory for abortion rights since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, in June, 2022, overturned the rights guaranteed by Roe v. Wade. In a state that has long been dominated by Republicans, more than two million people endorsed a constitutional amendment asserting that “every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions.” The amendment, which, like Roe, allows the state to restrict abortion only after fetal viability, unless a doctor considers it necessary to protect the mother’s life or health, passed by more than thirteen percentage points. Kelly Hall, the executive director of the Fairness Project, which promotes progressive ballot measures in red and purple states, told me, “A victory in Ohio really does tell all of us in the abortion-rights movement that this is possible almost everywhere.”
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Ohio was the only state this year where voters had an up-or-down vote on abortion rights, but results there and elsewhere offered fresh evidence that the issue is likely to help Democrats in 2024. In Virginia, Democrats who lambasted the anti-abortion policies of Glenn Youngkin, the Republican governor, retained their leadership of the state Senate and won control of the House. In Kentucky, the Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, won reëlection against the Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, who supports the state’s near-total ban on abortion. In Pennsylvania, Democrats added to their majority on the state Supreme Court, electing Dan McCaffery, who made abortion access a central part of his campaign for a ten-year term.
The results also show that pro-choice voters were not persuaded by some Republicans’ attempts to moderate their positions. Youngkin, often mentioned as a potential Presidential candidate, has said that “life begins at conception” and that he would sign any bill “happily and gleefully in order to protect life.” But, during the campaign in Virginia, the last Southern state where widespread access to abortion is protected, Youngkin’s political-action committee spent $1.4 million to distribute a video advertisement that declared support for a “reasonable fifteen-week limit,” with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, though not for cases in which the fetus has a fatal anomaly.
In Ohio, supporters of abortion rights argued that the amendment favored patients over politicians, and protected decisions not only on abortion but also on contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and “continuing one’s own pregnancy” as essential health provisions. They emphasized that there is no known medical justification for limits on abortion and framed the choice to get one as a matter of personal liberty. On Wednesday, Lauren Blauvelt, the co-chair of Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, said that voters turned out “to reclaim their freedom to make their most personal decisions without government interference.”
Reproductive-rights advocates in Ohio outraised and outspent their opponents by millions of dollars, and built a coalition that stretched across parties and geography, bolstered by labor unions, pastors, and groups of motivated women. Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, and John Legend made appearances in favor of the ballot measure, known as Issue 1. “They tell us we are the minority,” Whitmer, the Democratic governor of neighboring Michigan, which approved a similar amendment in 2022, told one virtual gathering. “We are not. We are the majority.”
In the past fifteen months, voters have protected abortion rights on ballot questions six times in a row, in Kansas, Montana, Vermont, California, Michigan, and Kentucky. To win in Ohio, where abortion remained legal pending the state Supreme Court’s review of the six-week ban, abortion-rights supporters had to overcome maneuvers by Republicans who were determined to break the streak.
Last spring, as pro-choice groups began to collect signatures to get on the ballot, Frank LaRose, the secretary of state, pushed successfully for an August referendum that would raise the threshold for passing constitutional amendments to sixty per cent from a simple majority, which had been the standard in Ohio since 1912. This came just months after he helped persuade the G.O.P.-dominated legislature to abolish August special elections, which historically have low turnout, calling them “bad news for the civic health of our state.” At first, he insisted that changing the rules was simply a matter of “good government.” But, addressing supporters in Seneca County, he said that the tactic was “one hundred per cent about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution.” Voters rejected that move by fourteen percentage points. (If it had passed, setting a sixty-per-cent threshold, Tuesday’s constitutional amendment would have failed.)
By then, the abortion-rights coalition had gathered nearly half a million verified signatures, eighty thousand more than necessary, to get the amendment on the ballot. The next step in the referendum process called for the state ballot board to determine the language that voters would see in the polling booth. The simplest approach would have been to reproduce the neutral text of the amendment, which is about two hundred words long.Destroying Democracy to Ban Abortion
If you thought that Ohio’s ballot measure win meant that Republicans would stop attacking democracy—boy were you wrong! In response to voters’ overwhelming support for Issue 1, which will enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, Republicans have made clear that they plan to overturn the will of the people.
First, twenty-seven Republican House members signed onto a letter saying, “We will do everything in our power to prevent our laws from being removed…We were elected to protect the most vulnerable in our state.” And The Columbus Dispatch reported this week that House Speaker Jason Stephens said, “The legislature has multiple paths that we will explore to continue to protect innocent life.”
We expected this somewhat: Ohio Republicans spent months undermining democratic norms to prevent Issue 1 from passing, making very clear in the process that they don’t give a shit what voters want. So it makes sense, now that the amendment has passed, that they’d do everything in their power to keep it from repealing their abortion ban.
But in this press release, Republican legislators make clear they’re not just going to do everything within their power—but anything outside of it, as well. The short version? Republicans say they’ll prevent the courts from allowing Issue 1 to take effect:
“To prevent mischief by pro-abortion courts with Issue 1, Ohio legislators will consider removing jurisdiction from the judiciary over this ambiguous ballot initiative. The Ohio legislature alone will consider what, if any, modifications to make to existing laws based on public hearings and input from legal experts on both sides.”
They are threatening to strip power from the courts in order to keep abortion banned! As the Ohio Capital Journal points out, the abortion rights amendment doesn’t take effect until December 7th of this year, and each abortion restriction needs to be individually taken to court and repealed. So what Republicans are suggesting is that they don’t want those restrictions decided by judges, but them.
In the release, Ohio legislators also claim that “foreign billionaires” and “foreign election interference” allowed Issue 1 to pass. This gets at something I wrote about yesterday: They have to paint their opposition as a Big Bad Enemy, because otherwise they’d need to admit that their actual political opposition are just individual women who voted against them.
All of this is wildly undemocratic, of course, even by their standards. (I’ve attached the press release here, as well, in case they decide to take it down.)
Over at Slate, law professor Mary Ziegler writes that there are other ways that the amendment could be stymied by Republicans: through the courts themselves. “[T]he people ultimately interpreting the new constitutional amendment are the judges of the Ohio Supreme Court,” she writes. And Republicans have a 4-3 majority.
All of which means, we won—but the fight isn’t close to over.
Attacks in Other States
Thanks to the incredible pro-choice win in Ohio, abortion rights advocates in other states are feeling all the more energized about their own ballot measure efforts.
Here’s where abortion may be on the ballot in 2024: Arizona, Missouri, Florida, Nevada, Colorado, South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Maryland, New York and Washington. (There are also anti-abortion activists working on ballot measures in Iowa and Colorado.) And just yesterday, Minnesota Democrats said that they’re also considering a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights next session—which would put the issue in front of voters next fall. I found this Associated Press map useful if you need a visual of the state-by-state breakdown:
We know what that means: All of the bullshit we saw in Ohio (and more) will be exported to any state considering a pro-choice measure. It’s already started, for example, in Florida, where activists are in the process of collecting signatures for an abortion rights amendment.
Abortion is banned in Florida after 15 weeks, but Republicans have also passed a 6-week ban. Before the 6-week ban can go into effect, the state Supreme Court needs to issue a ruling on a challenge against the current 15-week ban. Because the Court is stacked with Ron DeSantis appointees, the expectation is that they’ll rule in favor of it, and the 6-week ban will be enacted. That makes the passage of this amendment even more important—not just for Floridians, but people in the entire region who travel to the state for abortion care.
As abortion rights advocates collect signatures for their measure, Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody is petitioning the state Supreme Court to stop the amendment from ever getting to voters. (More on that effort here.)
Floridians Protecting Freedom, however, released a statement this week about Ohio’s win, saying that the victory “only strengthens our resolve to return the freedom to make decisions about abortion to the people of Florida, where it belongs.”
Florida activists have clearly already taken lessons from the attacks launched against Ohio’s measure. The proposed amendment in Florida, for example, contains language about parental rights—which was one of the biggest anti-abortion lies about Ohio’s Issue 1. The amendment says that it “does not change the legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
This is important: POLITICO reports that Florida activists aren’t getting the same level of out-of-state donations that we saw in Ohio—which is disappointing to hear, because Florida is a key state for abortion access in the South. (Know a donor? Send them here!)
Abortion, Every Day has also been watching Missouri closely, as Republicans try the same dirty tricks that the Ohio GOP pulled—from state leaders pushing a false ballot summary to the Attorney General threatening to quit if voters restore abortion rights. For more background, check out my piece from earlier this week:
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Issue 1 passed in Ohio, protecting abortion rights — now what? - Ohio Capital Journal
By: Morgan Trau - November 9, 2023 4:45 am
COLUMBUS, OH — NOVEMBER 07: Dr. Arthur Lavin and Dr. Lauren Beene, leaders of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights celebrate the early results at the Issue 1 election night watch party, November 7, 2023, at the Hyatt Regency Downtown in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original article.)
Ohioans voted to protect and legalize abortion access Tuesday night, but the fight is not over.
In a 13-point victory, Issue 1 passed.
“This is a huge win,” said Veronica Ingham with Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights. “We must continue to fight for freedom and defend democracy.”
Even though the constitutional amendment will go into effect in early December, all of the restrictions up until now will need to be settled and dealt with in court.
“All of those things are going to get litigated in the courts as the government proposes rules and plaintiffs attack those rules as being overly restrictive,” Case Western Reserve University law professor Atiba Ellis said.
There are restrictions currently being evaluated by the Ohio Supreme Court, like the six-week ban.
Despite their decisive loss, Statehouse Republicans and anti-abortion groups have plans to stop Issue 1.
One idea is fighting to keep the most stringent restrictions they can under the amendment, according to House Speaker Jason Stephens.
“The legislature has multiple paths that we will explore to continue to protect innocent life,” Stephens said. “This is not the end of the conversation.”
End Abortion Ohio’s Austin Beigel is on board with that.
“There are processes through our system of government that can change things around,” he said.
His idea would be to use the 14th Amendment in the U.S. Constitution to rule that the state constitution is now in violation of the equal protection clause. This is often called the “personhood” argument.
“I don’t think it’s a very good argument,” nonpartisan CWRU law professor Entin said. “I think that there has been a virtually universal understanding among lawyers and judges that when the Constitution talks about people or persons, we’re talking about folks who are born.”
Beigel begs to differ, and said he is working with lawmakers on possibly proposing legislation to support this idea.
The other main GOP plan is putting forward another amendment to repeal Issue 1, which comes from Senate President Matt Huffman.
“This isn’t the end,” Huffman said. “It is really just the beginning of a revolving door of ballot campaigns to repeal or replace Issue 1.”
Both law professors, Ingham and Beigel, all believe this isn’t a good idea.
“I don’t think that the pure democratic process works for the abortion issue right now if you’re against abortion,” Beigel said.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose and many of the Republican lawmakers pushed for the controversial August Issue 1, which would have made it more difficult for the abortion amendment to pass in November. This strategic attempt to thwart the will of the people was shot down in a bipartisan fashion. The Republicans then tried everything they could to stop people from supporting November’s Issue 1. If they put up another amendment to try to stop abortion, the voters will “lose their minds,” according to an Issue 1 victory party-goer.
However, Entin explained that there is a way the Republicans could get a win. The conservative Ohio Supreme Court justices can read the six-week ban and interpret it however they want — possibly putting it back into effect — but that would be a huge and unlikely stretch.
“I have a really hard time believing that the justices would be willing to just bend the language to that extent,” he said. “I could envision anti-abortion justices in a case involving the Heartbeat Law saying, ‘We think this is a terrible outcome, but the language of the Ohio Constitution means that we have to strike down this law.'”
OURR will be watching, and the advocates plan to respond to whatever comes next.
“We’ll work really hard to ensure that these restrictions go away.” Lauren Blauvelt said.
Here are answers to some other questions you may have about Issue 1:
Is the amendment in effect?
Not yet. It takes effect on Dec. 7, 2023.
Are all the restrictions gone, and is abortion totally legal?
No. Each restriction needs to be taken to court and repealed.
There have been 31 abortion restrictions passed since 2011, according to OURR.
However, Democrats can propose legislation that would eliminate all of the restrictions — and they plan to do so. It is significantly more likely that this will be dealt with in court, considering the GOP has a supermajority and it would be shocking to see them pass protections for abortion.
What is the current status of abortion law?
Right now, abortion is legal up until 22 weeks.
How is the GOP planning to fight against Issue 1?
The lawmakers have made vague comments about how this is “not the end,” and they plan on putting forward legislation or proposals to stop the effects of the amendment that was passed by 57% of Ohio voters.
“It’ll be a challenge, maybe not an insurmountable challenge, but it will be a challenge for the state to adopt additional pre-viability abortion restrictions given that the state already has a bunch of those, and some of them may be vulnerable to challenge post-viability,” Entin said.
The Ohio Supreme Court is conservative. Can they just ignore the constitutional amendment?
Not really, but there are a few legal loopholes.
Since the court is the ultimate interpreter of Ohio law, their rulings stick. It is possible the justices could interpret something in a “counterintuitive fashion,” according to Entin, but he doesn’t believe they will.
Still confused? Reach out to Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau with questions. Email her at Morgan.Trau@wews.com.
This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.
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Ohio Republicans Say It's Their ‘God Given Right' to Restrict Abortion Access
Ohio Republicans are claiming a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, which was approved by voters in Tuesday's election, doesn't actually do that - and they're promising to take steps to prevent the legal protection of reproductive freedom in the state.
"To prevent mischief by pro-abortion courts with Issue 1, Ohio legislators will consider removing jurisdiction from the judiciary over this ambiguous ballot initiative," Ohio House Republicans wrote in a statement released Thursday. "The Ohio legislature alone will consider what, if any, modifications to make to existing laws based on public hearings and input from legal experts on both sides.
Ohio banned abortion in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, but legal challenges to state's abortion laws left residents' reproductive rights in limbo until Tuesday's ballot measure. The strategy Republicans are now proposing would essentially strip Ohio's courts of the authority to repeal existing abortion restrictions before the new amendment goes into effect on December 7.
"No amendment can overturn the God-given rights with which we were born," state Rep. Beth Lear (R-Galena) added in the Republican's statement. Another representative, Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester), claimed the referendum had only passed due to "foreign election interference."
Rep. Bill Dean (R-Xenia) said the amendment "doesn't repeal a single Ohio law," and that its language is "dangerously vague and unconstrained, and can be weaponized to attack parental rights or defend rapists, pedophiles, and human traffickers."
Ohio is not the only state where Republicans are attempting to undermine pro-choice ballot initiatives endorsed by constituents. In Michigan, two anti-choice activist groups are working with Republican lawmakers to sue the state and block the implementation of that state's voter-approved constitutional amendment.
Stacey LaRouche, press secretary to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, told The Detroit News that "it shouldn't be lost on people that these right-wing organizations and radical Republicans in the Michigan Legislature are cherry-picking courts to try to once again overturn a constitutionally guaranteed right because they can't win with voters."
Ballot measures supporting reproductive freedom have been approved in all seven states where they have been put to voters. Despite Republicans claiming that the end of Roe signified the return of the abortion issue to the will of individual states, they clearly remain determined to undermine reproductive rights no matter what any state's voters have to say about them.
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https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-lessons-of-ohios-abortion-rights-victory
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Here are the states where abortion access may be on the ballot in 2024
After Ohio voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion and other forms of reproductive healthcare, advocates on both sides of the issue are looking at how they can get support on 2024 ballots in at least a dozen states.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had protected abortion rights nationally, voters in all seven states that held a statewide vote have backed access. That includes Ohio, where voters Tuesday enshrined abortion access in the state constitution.
Constitutional amendments to protect access are already on the ballots for 2024 in Maryland and New York.
Questions are being considered for several other states — some to protect access and some to limit or ban it.
Here’s what’s happening in the states.
Arizona
Abortion access advocates want to amend the state constitution to protect access to abortion until the fetus is viable, generally considered to be around 24 weeks gestational age or later, to protect the life or physical or mental health of the woman.
Supporters have until July 3 to collect nearly 384,000 valid signatures to get the measure on the ballot.
Abortion is banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy, but the Democratic governor signed an executive order in June that bars county prosecutors from bringing abortion-related cases.
Colorado
Colorado has dueling efforts — one from abortion rights advocates and one from opponents.
Neither side has settled on specific language, but abortion rights advocates want a constitutional amendment that would keep the state from banning abortion and would overturn a 1984 amendment that let the government prohibit insurance coverage for abortion.
Opponents want to ban abortion throughout pregnancy. Colorado currently has no state laws barring abortion at any point in pregnancy.
Both sides have until Aug. 5 to gather more than 124,000 signatures. Any measure would need at least 55% of votes to pass.
Florida
Abortion rights advocates back a constitutional amendment to reverse laws restricting abortion.
Abortion in Florida is now banned at 15 weeks, based on a law that went into effect last year with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature. DeSantis, a Republican candidate for president, this year signed into law a measure to ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions to save the life of the woman and in cases of rape or incest. The 15-week ban is facing a legal challenge and, in an unusual twist, if it is upheld the six-week ban will go into effect.
The proposed amendment would undo both bans and require that abortion be available until fetal viability, around 24 weeks.
To get it on the ballot, supporters are required to gather nearly 900,000 signatures by Feb. 1.
Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody has asked the state Supreme Court to keep the question off the ballot, arguing that “viability” is too vague.
The amendment would need 60% of votes to pass.
Iowa
Both chambers of the Republican-controlled legislature have approved an amendment that would declare that there’s no right to abortion in the state constitution. Now it needs final approval in the 2023-24 term to go before voters.
This has been at the heart of legal battles already in Iowa.
The state Supreme Court in 2019 upheld a lower court decision that there is a right to abortion in the state constitution. But in 2022, after membership of the court changed, the court reversed itself.
During a special session in July, Republicans passed a new law to ban abortion after cardiac activity can be detected — about six weeks into pregnancy and before women often realize they’re pregnant. It was in effect for a few days before a court put enforcement on hold.
Maryland
Lawmakers have put an amendment on the ballot that includes the “fundamental right” to reproductive freedom. Abortion is legal in Maryland until viability.
Missouri
Intense court battles have already emerged over proposed ballot measures in Missouri, where abortion is currently banned at all stages of pregnancy.
Abortion-rights advocates are pushing for a constitutional amendment that would bar the government from infringing on a person’s right to reproductive freedom or ban abortion in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Moderate Republicans are working on an amendment that would be less restrictive than the current law, but not allow the same amount of access the other abortion rights groups want.
Backers of both approaches have submitted several versions of their amendments and will each eventually select one to pursue.
To get it on the ballot, they need more than 171,000 signatures by May 5.
In October, an appeals panel agreed with a lower court judge and rejected the summaries of the ballot questions written by Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who is running for governor, as politically partisan. Ashcroft said he would appeal.
Nebraska
Abortion rights advocates have submitted language to Nebraska’ secretary of state for a ballot question that would expand abortion access.
The exact language has not been approved or made public.
The state bans abortion after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in most cases.
At least 7% of registered voters statewide must sign a petition by July 5 to put the question on the ballot.
The secretary of state approved ballot language for a referendum to ban abortion throughout pregnancy with a state law, but the backer of the amendment said he had decided not to pursue a petition drive for 2024.
Nevada
Voters could decide on adding an amendment to establish reproductive freedom, including for decisions about abortion.
A ballot measure pushed by abortion-rights advocates would still allow the state to regulate abortion after viability with exceptions after that for the life and physical and mental health of the woman.
The measure would reinforce the state’s current policy that allows abortion up to 24 weeks, but further enshrine it in the state constitution and make it more difficult to overturn.
To put the question on the 2024 ballot, supporters have to gather more than 102,000 signatures by June 26.
New York
Lawmakers have already placed a question on the 2024 ballot asking voters to add “pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and reproductive healthcare and autonomy” as areas where discrimination would be barred. The measure does not mention abortion by name, though it does seek to protect access in a state where it’s now legal until viability.
Pennsylvania
Republican lawmakers might push to add a question to the ballot to amend the state constitution to declare that it doesn’t grant the right to an abortion, or a right to a taxpayer-funded abortion.
Both chambers of the legislature approved the question once, and would need to do it again to get it on the ballot.
There’s drama around whether that will happen during the 2023-24 legislative session. Democrats currently control the lower legislative chamber with a one-vote advantage. As long as that remains the case, the proposal isn’t expected to pass. But it’s possible there could be a vacancy and special election that would flip control — and potentially give new life to the proposed amendment.
Currently, abortion is legal in the state until 24 weeks’ gestational age.
South Dakota
Voters in South Dakota could be asked to amend the state constitution to roll back the state’s ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy with an exception only for the life of the pregnant woman.
Under a proposed constitutional amendment, the state could not restrict abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. It could in the second trimester, except when abortion is necessary to preserve the life or physical or emotional health of the woman. In the third trimester, the state could ban abortion — except when it’s needed to save the woman’s life.
Supporters have until May 7 to gather more than 17,000 signatures to put it on the ballot.
Judges have told two counties to stop restricting gathering signatures on county courthouse campuses.
Washington
Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in 2022 pushed for lawmakers to add a question to the ballot to protect abortion access, but so far the legislature has not advanced it.
Currently, abortion is legal until viability.
Associated Press reporters from around the U.S. contributed to this article.
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