Ohio Voters Reject Proposal to Amend State Constitution, Preserving Abortion Rights
Ohio voters have decisively rejected a closely watched proposal known as Issue 1 that aimed to make it more difficult to amend the state constitution. The proposed constitutional amendment failed to garner the majority support it needed to pass, with 57% of voters against it and 42% in favor. Issue 1 would have raised the threshold for approving future changes to the state constitution from a simple majority to 60%.
Pro-abortion rights supporters see this rejection as a crucial victory ahead of a November vote on enshrining reproductive rights in the Ohio Constitution. A July poll showed that 58% of Ohio voters support the effort to protect abortion access in the state’s founding document. With the failure of Issue 1, the lower bar for approving amendments that has been in place since 1912 remains, potentially paving the way for the approval of the abortion rights ballot measure in November.
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio celebrated the rejection of Issue 1, stating that Ohioans had rejected special interests and demanded that democracy remain in the hands of voters. President Biden also weighed in, saying that Ohioans had spoken loud and clear, and democracy had won.
The push to raise the bar for approving proposed amendments began earlier this year when pro-abortion rights positions won in all six states where the issue was directly put to voters in the 2022 midterm cycle. Ohio Republican lawmakers saw the 60% majority threshold as crucial for protecting the state constitution from well-funded, out-of-state interests. However, opponents argued that the amendment was an attempt to block the pro-abortion rights amendment from being added to the constitution in November.
The proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot aims to protect the right of individuals to make their own reproductive decisions, including on contraception and abortion. It would also forbid the state from prohibiting or interfering with this right, except after fetal viability. The amendment defines fetal viability as the point in a pregnancy when the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures.
Issue 1 not only sought to raise the threshold for passing state constitutional amendments but would have also elevated the standard to place a citizen-initiated amendment on the ballot. The amendment required that any petition filed after January 1 be signed by at least 5% of the electors of each of Ohio’s 88 counties, based on the total number of votes cast in the last governor’s race.
Ohio is the only state this year where voters weighed changes to the rules governing proposed constitutional amendments and where the issue of abortion rights will directly appear on the ballot. Similar efforts in Arkansas, South Dakota, and Missouri have failed to impose supermajority thresholds for the adoption of constitutional amendments.
The rejection of Issue 1 is seen as a significant win for pro-abortion rights advocates in Ohio, as they now have a better chance of protecting reproductive rights through the November ballot. The outcome of the upcoming vote will have far-reaching implications for the future of abortion rights in the state.
Original Story at www.cbsnews.com – 2023-08-09 02:16:00
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