Ohio repro rights community wins first part in battle for abortion access
Voters will now consider whether to enshrine abortion rights in state constitution
(Marcela Azevedo, MD - President Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights and Executive Board member Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights)
Ohio voters shot down an effort to make it harder for ballot initiatives to pass after antiabortion advocates sought to raise the threshold of support needed for it to become part of the state constitution.
Voters will now consider a ballot initiative in November that would protect abortion access. Issue 1 was a last-ditch resort by antiabortion activists and politicians to require a ballot initiative to have 60 percent support for it to pass. The threshold remains at 50 percent, which makes it easier for abortion rights protections to become a reality. Lauren Beene, executive director of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, explained what happened.
“That was squashed because people saw right through it and Ohioans are smart,” Beene said.
“They know that those people who are trying to get that passed were just trying to take away the power of Ohioans and make it harder to amend the Constitution in November to protect reproductive health care, including abortion access.”
As someone who lives in western Pennsylvania–which is almost identical in political sensibilities to Ohio–this is truly illuminating and flips the historical narrative about the area on its head. Previously, political operatives had said that we had to downplay abortion rights as an issue because they perceived the area as socially conservative. They even encouraged some Democrats to take antiabortion positions.
What we’re seeing now is that positions supporting reproductive rights will help a politician get elected. Going into a presidential year, that should be taken into consideration when planning campaign strategy.
Additionally, I’ve read national media commentary and analysis that say Ohio is solidly Republican. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a state that went for Obama, and it also went for Trump. It’s elected Democrats to statewide office as well as Republicans. It has a far greater chance of going Democratic than Texas or other places that Democrats have convinced themselves are swing states despite strong evidence that those areas remain Republican strongholds.
I’m not saying that Democrats shouldn’t have long-term goals to grow the party in Texas or elsewhere. But for practical reasons, the states they should focus on in 2024 should be Ohio, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. The first three are their best shots.
As for Ohio, this growing feminist movement shouldn’t lose steam if it succeeds in November. That grassroots network can be channeled to other feminist goals, like universal daycare or other programs designed to advance reproductive justice. We should continue to support these organizations and those that grow out from the ones currently winning the debate on reproductive rights in Ohio.
Matt Taibbi, a respected journalist on Substack, wrote that Democrats are in disarray as they try to find a message that resonates with voters. Looking at how this has played out in Ohio, I think that it makes sense to build the platform around making the government and country more supportive of women who both do and don’t want to be mothers.
Beene agreed that there are lessons to take away from their success thus far.
“These politicians who are trying to gain and maintain power by trying to take away people's rights need to think about that because it doesn't seem to be a winning strategy,” Beene said. “And I'm sure that will have an influence on how people pursue the larger elections in 2024.”