Ohioans voted Tuesday night to make abortion rights part of the Buckeye State’s constitution, the latest in a string of defeats for pro-life activists at the ballot box.
With 60% of the expected votes in, the pro-abortion side led 56.1% to 43.9%, a margin of more than 280,000 votes out of more than 2.3 million voters.
The vote highlights the thorny nature of abortion politics for Republicans — even in solid red states — as they grapple with how to address the issue ahead of next year’s presidential and congressional elections.
Issue One specifically asks voters if they want to amend the state constitution to guarantee the right to “make and exercise one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions about contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.”
A Republican-led effort to raise the threshold for passing an amendment to 60% from 50%-plus-one was defeated in August this year.
President Biden praised the decision late Tuesday, saying in a statement that “the American people have once again voted to protect their fundamental freedoms — and democracy won.”
“Ohioians and voters across the country reject attempts by MAGA Republican party officials to impose an extreme abortion ban that puts women’s health and lives at risk, forces women to travel hundreds of miles for treatment, and threatens to criminalize doctors and nurses for provide the healthcare that their patients need and they are trained to provide it,” the president said. “This extreme and dangerous agenda does not sit well with the vast majority of Americans. My administration will continue to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore Roe v. protections. Wade in federal law forever.”
In a one-two punch to Ohio’s socially conservative gut, voters also supported legalizing marijuana for residents 21 and older on a separate ballot question.
After the June 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, many states — including Ohio — enacted so-called “heartbeat bills” all but banning the procedure after detecting a fetal heartbeat, which pro-life advocates say can occur around the six-week mark of pregnancy.
Anti-abortion activists oppose the amendment, hoping to avoid another political setback for the movement. AFP via Getty Images Ohio is the latest state to consider a political proxy war over abortion sweeping the nation.AP Mike DeWine encourages voters to oppose Issue One. AP
Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, who passed his state’s heartbeat bill and won re-election in a landslide last year, cut a TV ad opposing the First Issue quote with his wife Frances.
“I think whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, the constitutional amendment that we’re going to vote on in a few weeks just goes too far, too far,” DeWine told Fox News Digital last month.
“It will allow abortion at any point in pregnancy,” the governor stressed. “It would negate an Ohio law that we’ve had on the books for years that prohibits partial-birth abortions … It also really attacks parental rights and the relationship between parents and in this case, daughters.”
Activists against First Issue argued that it would trample on protections for the unborn. AP
Since Roe was overturned, at least six other states — California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont — have voted on abortion ballot measures. In all those states, the abortion rights side is prioritized.
Additionally, Republicans have largely underperformed in the 2022 midterm elections, something political analysts pin at least in part on the backlash over the abortion issue.
Various polls have also shown that a large majority of voters nationally trust Democrats over Republicans on the issue of abortion.
Protesters march in support of Issue One, calling for abortion rights guaranteed in the Ohio Constitution.AP
A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed that 62% of registered voters say that abortion should be “always” or “mostly” legal, while only 30% say the procedure should be “always” or “mostly” illegal.
Ohioans also overwhelmingly voted in favor of a second ballot measure legalizing marijuana, making it the 24th state to do so.
The measure will take effect in 30 days and allow adults 21 and older to legally purchase and possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana, along with a 10% tax rate.
The law would also allow Ohioans to grow marijuana plants at home.
The “yes” vote marked the end of a years-long fight by activists to legalize the non-medical use of marijuana.
Republicans generally oppose the legalization of marijuana and still have the ability to change or repeal new laws.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
