As Ohio voters prepare to decide on sweeping changes to the state’s abortion laws, Republican Governor Mike DeWine unwittingly jumped into the debate with both feet.
DeWine explained to Fox News Digital in an interview this week why November’s vote to keep abortion access enshrined in the state constitution prompted her to run her first ad addressing the state’s ballot measure and why she believes the proposal is inconsistent with what most Ohio voters want.
“Fran and I have never done an ad before for a statewide issue or a local issue but we both feel very strongly about this and I think whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life the constitutional amendment we’re going to vote for. in a few weeks just went too far, too far,” DeWine told Fox News Digital at the governor’s home in Columbus, Ohio following an ad she aired with Ohio’s First Lady urging her voters to vote “No” on the November Issue 1 constitutional amendment on abortion.
“It would allow abortion at any point in pregnancy,” DeWine said. “It would negate an Ohio law we’ve had on the books for years that prohibits partial-birth abortions.”
The future of partial-birth and late-term abortions in Ohio has been a prominent topic among Issue 1 opponents, including Protect Women Ohio which has shown a $100,000 donation from Dr. Martin Haskell, a Dayton-area physician they described as “the inventor of the partial-birth abortion procedure,” was made to support the constitutional amendment.
“It also really attacks parental rights and the relationship between parents and in this case, daughters,” DeWine said.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine released an ad urging residents to vote against the state’s constitutional amendment on abortion.AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
“We have a law that says you have to get parental consent regarding minors getting an abortion which will be rejected by this constitutional amendment as well. So it would put Ohio in the small category of the most permissive states in the union with regard to abortion. I don’t think it fits Ohio. It’s not who we are. It’s not where we are.”
DeWine told Fox News Digital that groups supporting a “Yes” vote on Issue 1 have run ads that are misleading about what the amendment will do.
“I think the people who did this ad for issue one are misleading people,” DeWine said.
One ad talked about an amendment guaranteeing help with abortions, DeWine said, but that wasn’t the problem. “Medical help is out there. I mean, we have a hospital. They do what they do, doctor. So they package this into things that of course have been well taken care of by the medical community and our hospitals and our doctors. So, you know, I think it’s a very misleading campaign that they’re running.“
DeWine said he does not believe Ohio has ever overturned a constitutional amendment that has been approved by the people, which means that if this amendment is passed it is likely to remain.
DeWine explained that even under Roe v. Wade, Ohio is allowed to implement some restrictions on abortion and that this amendment would go further and repeal those measures.
Even Roe, and another Supreme Court abortion precedent case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, “allowed Ohio and other states to put some fences around abortion,” DeWine said. “Parental notification is one. Another law we have has to do with someone with a disability, a child with a disability. You cannot have an abortion specifically because the child has Down syndrome. You know, this is a fence… going away because this is a constitutional amendment.”
Signatures for and against Issue 1 on the Ohio ballot in November.AP Photo/Julie Carr Smyth
Many political pundits have concluded that abortion, and the reversal of Roe v. Wade, was an issue that hurt Republicans in last year’s midterm elections that prevented them from achieving the “Red Wave” result that gave them control of Congress.
However, every governor in the United States who signed abortion restrictions into law won re-election last November in states including Iowa, Idaho, Florida, South Dakota, Tennessee, South Carolina, Wyoming, Georgia, and even Ohio.
DeWine signed the heartbeat law banning abortion after 6 weeks and won a landslide re-election victory by 25 points.
When asked by Fox News Digital how DeWine has been able to effectively communicate the issue of abortion, she said she has “tried to focus on the science.”
A man holds a sign at a pro-life rally in Columbus at the Ohio State House on October 6, 2023.AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
“Even if you have people who are pro-choice and think that abortion should be allowed at some point up to a certain point, I don’t know anyone who thinks that abortion should be allowed until birth,” DeWine said. “I mean it just strikes most people as going too far… I think part of my job is to try, and my wife and I, my wife and I are trying to do with this ad, is just to tell people how radical this is. constitutional amendment is.”
DeWine said that most voters she interacts with don’t want to talk about abortion because it’s an “unpleasant subject” which is why she’s taping commercials from her kitchen to speak directly to Ohio voters and tell them that wherever they stand on the issue of abortion, this move is too “radical” to be enshrined in the state constitution.
When asked what he would tell Ohioans who are undecided about how to vote on Issue 1, the governor said that voters “don’t have to take my word for it” but should just “look at the language of the constitutional amendment and see how the courts has defined things in the past.”
Ohio Republican Attorney General Dave Yost compiled a comprehensive analysis of the “Yes” vote on the first Issue and passed the amendment meaning abortion in the state and wrote that the amendment’s language “creates a new legal standard that goes beyond what Roe and Casey said. “
A pro-choice rally in support of the amendment in Columbus on October 8, 2023.AP Photo/Joe Maiorana, File
“The amendment will not return the situation to the way it was before Dobbs overruled Roe, and is not merely ‘reinstating Roe,'” Yost said. “It goes further.”
Yost wrote that several abortion restrictions in the state would be invalidated if the new amendment passes including the Heartbeat Act, Down Syndrome discrimination laws and laws banning partial-birth abortions.
Additionally, Yost concluded that some other aspects related to abortion may not be overturned immediately but will face serious legal challenges with “uncertain outcomes” in court because of the bill’s language.
Those issues include the 24-hour waiting period and informed consent, an Ohio law requiring doctors to notify the child’s parents before performing an abortion on a pregnant minor, abortion pill safety regulations, limits on taxpayer funding for abortion providers.
Issue 1 supporters, including Ohio Citizen Action, have argued that voters “face a critical choice to defend our personal autonomy” and that “personal decisions should be made by individuals and their families, free from intrusive government oversight.”
People gather outside the Ohio Statehouse for a March for Life rally.AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File
“It’s pretty clear that this constitutional amendment just goes much, much further than what the average Ohioan approves of,” DeWine told Fox News Digital.
“If voters are comfortable with abortion up until the time of birth, they’ll probably agree to this amendment – if they’re comfortable with parents not being involved in the most important decisions their daughter will make or have made up to that point in her life. If they’re okay with that, then they should vote for this,” DeWine added.
“If you think that parents need to be involved and your daughter or anyone’s daughter needs parents to be involved, and you think that abortion should not be allowed until the time of birth, then this constitutional amendment is wrong and people. should vote against it.“
Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this report
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