On Tuesday night, Ohio voters passed Issue 1, a radical amendment that removes all restrictions on abortions. It was also carefully crafted so as to remove parental rights not merely on minors having abortions, but also on gender transitions. This is because the ballot initiative's text purposefully discusses how the amendment establishes "an individual right to one's own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion" as well as referencing "legal protections for any person or entity that assists a person with receiving reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion."
The decision was called less than two hours after the polls closed in Ohio, at 7:30pm. With 60 percent of the vote in, supporting Issue 1 leads with 56.24 percent of the vote, while opposing Issue 1 has 43.76 percent of the vote.
Decision Desk HQ projects Ohio Issue 1 has passed.#DecisionMade: 8:51pm EST
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 8, 2023
Follow more results here: https://t.co/8sug2Xq9ic pic.twitter.com/Kzt7xiMQo8
With Issue 1 passing, the question of abortion has been completely removed from future Ohioans. That is unless the process were to happen all over again, which would invovle considerable time and money, as attorney Megan Wold explained during a press call about the amendment last week. The state legislature can also put together a joint resolution to be voted on, but that would likely be far too cumbersome as well.
The initative's text referred to a particularly difficult threshold when it comes to the State having to use "the least restrictive means," and also allows for abortion up until birth, especially because the "health" exception mentioned in the text can mean whatever the abortionist decides it to mean. Further, no restrictions means the possibility for the return of the gruesome partial-birth abortion procedure, which Ohio abortionist Martin Haskell designed.
Protect Women Ohio was opposed to Issue 1, and despite a valiant effort, was widely outspent by pro-abortion forces, including Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. Secretary of State Frank LaRose not only opposed Issue 1 but also supported Amendment 1 back in August to raise the threshold for such initatives to pass. It ultimately failed.
As LaRose warned, it's been out-of-state agitators pushing for battleground and even red states to adopt radically pro-abortion initatives such as Issue 1.
BREAKING: As I predicted, new finance reports filed today show $11.5m pouring into OH from CA, VA, NY & DC to buy control of our state constitution. Tell them to take their radical agenda and go home by voting YES on Issue 1. https://t.co/wL4Y4O5gYA pic.twitter.com/AtEU78Xv6D
— Frank LaRose (@FrankLaRose) July 27, 2023
As Townhall has covered, citing both legal experts warning against Issue 1, but also groups like the ACLU, the initative was put forth by groups that do not believe in parental rights when it comes to minors having abortions or going through gender transitions that may involve hormone treatment and the negative side effects, as well as genital mutilation and sterilization.
Not long after the call was made, the pro-life group Heartbeat International released a statement making clear that "Big Abortion Won."
"Big Abortion won, while women, parents, and babies lost. Women lost common-sense protections. Parents have lost the ability to be involved in a key, and dangerous, component of their child’s medical and emotional health. And babies have been denied their bodily autonomy to grow as God intended. The work of pregnancy help will now be the only thing that can help women from the entrapment of the abortion profiteers," said President Jor-El Godsey in a statement.
Issue 2, to do with marijuana, also passed a short time later and looks to be by similar margins. Both initatives will go into effect in 30 days.
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