Ohio faces constitutional question over abortion

Republicans have sought to make ballot initiatives harder to pass

Ohio has been a battleground in the abortion debate since the Dobbs decision last summer. Those who favor access have fought for a ballot initiative, while those who oppose want to make it harder to change the state constitution. 

According to the Associated Press, Republicans who support the Ohio proposal will ask voters during an August special election to boost the threshold for passing constitutional amendments to 60% rather than a simple majority. It also would double the number of counties where signatures must be collected, adding an extra layer of difficulty to qualifying initiatives for the ballot.

Lauren Beene, executive director of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights/Protect Choice Ohio, said they were undeterred by the move. 

“These people will do anything to stop us and they know that this is not an issue that they are going to win on without lying and changing the rules,” Beene said. 

For more than a century, all people needed to pass an initiative was to have at least 51 percent support. In Ohio, roughly 59 percent of people support abortion rights. So that explains the 60 percent threshold the antiabortion side is trying to establish. 

Republicans have also sought to do what they’ve done in other states, which is to connect any effort to protect abortion rights with things that don’t have larger public support. This time, it has to do with falsely telling people that children won’t need parental consent for abortion should the ballot initiative pass. This effort has nothing to do with that and won’t change that law. 

Beene said that the abortion rights movement will focus on what it can control. 

“Right now we're in the peak of our signature collection phase for our ballot initiative in November,” Beene said. “And we are staying very focused on that to the best that we can and are not gonna let these people distract us.”