The GOP-controlled Ohio Legislature passed a series of measures this week that could make it more difficult to change the state constitution to protect the right to abortion.
Ohio voters will now go to the polls on August 8 to decide whether to raise the vote to 60%. limit of support required for the approval of electoral measures that modify the state constitution. Currently, only a majority is needed.
Reproductive rights groups contend the measure is explicitly designed to make it harder for voters to approve a proposed amendment to be placed on the ballot in November that would enshrine abortion rights in the Ohio Constitution.
Voters will also decide whether groups seeking to place ballot measures must obtain the signatures of voters in all 88 Ohio counties, instead of the 44 that are now required.
Because the measures were adopted through a joint resolution, they do not require the governor’s signature.
The Republican-led moves came just weeks after reproductive rights groups in the state overcame several key obstacles in their own path to getting their measure on the ballot in November.
While the measures passed this week do not explicitly mention abortion, reproductive rights groups argue that the effort to raise the threshold is aimed at turning around their efforts to pass their own ballot measure this November.
If voters approve the threshold measure in August, then November’s proposed amendment to enshrine abortion rights would need 60% of voters to pass. If he fails in August, he would only need a majority.
“This is essentially just a way to cheat the system. It’s pretty clear this initiative is coming from anti-choice extremists within the Ohio legislature with the goal of finding a way to change the rules so Ohioans themselves don’t get a vote on how they want to run their bodies.» said Dr. Marcela Azevedo, president and founder of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, a group that has led efforts among reproductive rights groups in the state for nearly a year.
Several groups opposed to the latest measures, including the Ohio League of Women Voters and the Ohio Voting Rights Coalition, immediately announced efforts to increase voter turnout and awareness about the August election to help defeat the proposal.
Republican supporters of the newly passed measures has said they would protect the state constitution from efforts to change it funded by “special interests” outside the state.
“They are literally trying to manipulate him into changing the rules,” Azevedo said. «They just know they can’t win under the rules.»
Raising the threshold for passage of future constitutional amendments, however, would mark a major change in state procedures: The simple majority required to pass a proposed constitutional amendment has existed in Ohio since 1912.
Public votes have shown that about 59% of Ohio voters support enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, a level just shy of the recently proposed elevated threshold.
Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights’ proposed measure would insert language into the state constitution enshrining the right of each individual «to make and carry out their own reproductive decisions,» including with respect to contraception, fertility treatment, continuation of one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion. It also specifies that the state will not «charge, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate» against those rights.
The proposed amendment specifies that abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability, but includes exceptions to protect the life or health of the mother.
The proposed amendment has already been approved by the state attorney general and electoral board.
The group has until July 5 to collect about 413,000 valid signatures, 10% of the total votes cast in the last gubernatorial race, under Ohio law, in at least 44 of the state’s 88 counties to place the amendment. Azevedo said the coalition is «on target.»
The proposed amendment is designed to counter Ohio’s «heartbeat bill,» which returned to his place immediately after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last summer. That law, which effectively prohibits most abortions —but includes exceptions for the health of pregnant women and in cases of ectopic pregnancies— stays temporarily blocked by a state judge.
Efforts in Ohio to use the state constitution to protect abortion rights are similar to those across the US in the year since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
Buoyed by a perfect record on ballot measures in the midterms, reproductive rights groups quickly set their sights on planning citizen-led ballot initiatives that would enshrine abortion rights in the constitutions of 10 states this year.
Just as quickly, however, Republican-led legislatures began trying to curb the ability of citizens and other lawmakers to place ballot measures, a move that progressive groups say is explicitly aimed at making it harder for state voters to reds and purples have a direct voice over the main ones. issues such as the right to abortion.