In less than 24 hours, the polls in Ohio will close, one of six states to vote in off-year but nevertheless critical elections. On the ballot in the Buckeye State will be a series of initiatives, including one which will ask voters whether or not to completely upend their constitution to allow for abortion up until birth. Additionally, it will also do away with parental rights not only on abortion, but when it comes to gender transitions.
The ballot initiative is known as the "Ohio Issue 1, Right to Make Reproductive Decisions Including Abortion Initiative," and the text reads as follows:
The proposed amendment would:
• Establish in the Constitution of the State of Ohio an individual right to one's own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion;
• Create legal protections for any person or entity that assists a person with receiving reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion;
• Prohibit the State from directly or indirectly burdening, penalizing, or prohibiting abortion before an unborn child is determined to be viable, unless the State demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means;
• Grant a pregnant woman's treating physician the authority to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether an unborn child is viable;
• Only allow the State to prohibit an abortion after an unborn child is determined by a pregnant woman's treating physician to be viable and only if the physician does not consider the abortion necessary to protect the pregnant woman's life or health; and
• Always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability if, in the treating physician's determination, the abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant woman's life or health.
If passed, the amendment will become effective 30 days after the election.
Ahead of Election Day, Townhall tuned into a press call from Protect Women Ohio, the main organization urging Ohioans to vote against the initiative. Meanwhile, those in favor of the initiative includes not only those providing out-of-state funding, but radical groups such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.
Those speaking during the call, including Independent Women's Law Center's May Mailman; Professor Lee Strang; and attorney Megan Wold, all stressed during the call that Issue 1 is an extreme and far-reaching initiative.
It would actually take the abortion issue out of the hands of Ohio voters who could otherwise decide the issue through their elected officials. Even judges would be bound by the initative. As Wold pointed out during the call, voting for Issue 1 would be "a vote for a new legal regime." The process is already in play without the meddling of those pushing Issue 1, as the Ohio Supreme Court is considering the state's abortion law banning the procedure once a heartbeat is detected, at about six weeks.
Mailman also began the call by pointing to an example of how local media has been misleading on the issue. "What is Ohio Issue 1? We explain the proposed abortion rights amendment," read an October 19 headline from the Ohio Capitol Journal.
Despite claiming to "explain" the amendment to readers, it was full of bias, especially when it comes to one quote in particular from the supposedly "nonpartisan" legal expert and Case Western Reserve University law professor Atiba Ellis. According to Ellis, "[t]he constitutional amendment would likely put us back into the status quo of the law before the US Supreme Court changed the configuration of things by overruling Roe."
Issue 1 would not be about the status quo, as abortion would be even less restricted than it was under Roe v. Wade, which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned in June of last year with the Dobbs v. Jackson case. It also applies to other issues beyond abortion, and to minor children, given that the ballot initative's text purposefully reads "individual." As Strang offered, the initative is "carefully crafted," and one that makes "intentional choices with language" so as to not protect parental rights or prohibit late-term, even partial-birth abortions. The abortionist who crafted the gruesome partial-birth procedure, Martin Haskell, came from Ohio.
The "least restrictive means" mentioned in the text would also be an "impossibly high burden," as Mailman mentioned during the call, given that the abortionist is the one who gets to decide whatever constitutes a "health" exception. In Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to Roe, the "health" exception was purposefully designed to be vague, and could even mean something as family size.
It's worth noting that even those who support abortion acknowledge that Issue 1 would be an "overreach." This includes the editorial board of the Toledo Blade. The Columbus Dispatch also published both perspectives, including those urging voters to reject the initative. Even The New York Times had some pleasant surprises by acknowledging there's confusion.
If Issue 1 were to pass, voters would have very little recourse to return the abortion issue back to the people. Both sides at least seem to acknowledge that much. Wold stressed, including when taking a question from Townhall, that the recourse would be to go through the process all over again, to change the state consitution back. She cautioned it "sounds a little more possible than it is," in large part due to the cost. The Ohio legislature could also pass a joint resolution that could then put the issue back on the ballot, but that would be cumbersome.
Other abortion initiatives at the state level in the United States where Dobbs is the law of the land after Roe was overturned have gone the way of the pro-abortion side. This includes even in Republican states. In many of those states, however, it was the pro-life movement trying but failing to pass ballot initiatives. In this instance it's the pro-abortion movement putting their radical views on display for Ohioans to vote on.
"Vote NO" has been trending over X on Monday night ahead of the vote, as pro-life advocates make their final pitch. This includes Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is also running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, teaming up with Protect Women Ohio.
Secretary of State @FrankLaRose is out with our great volunteers, reminding Ohioans that we all need to vote NO on Issue 1 tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/gRyV8A0cRR
— Protect Women Ohio (@ProtectWomenOH) November 6, 2023