Ample signatures submitted for Ohio abortion vote
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Groups hoping to enshrine abortion rights in Ohio’s constitution have delivered nearly twice as many signatures as needed to place an amendment on a statewide ballot this fall.
The Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights coalition said it dropped off more than 700,000 petition signatures on Wednesday at the Columbus office of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican. LaRose will work with local election boards to determine whether at least 413,446 signatures are valid, which would get the proposal onto the Nov. 7 ballot.
“Today, we take a huge step forward in the fight for abortion access and reproductive freedom for all, to ensure that Ohioans and their families can make their own health care decisions without government interference,” Lauren Blauvelt and Kellie Copeland of Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, a coalition member, said in a statement.
At a news conference,
Copeland said the 422 boxes delivered “are filled with hope and love and dreams of freedom, of bodily autonomy, of health, of being able to say, ‘We decide what happens to us.’ ”
The measure calls for “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” with “reasonable limits.” In language similar to a constitutional amendment that Michigan voters approved last year, it would require restrictions imposed before a fetus’ viability outside the womb to be based on evidence of patient health and safety benefits. That is around 24 weeks of pregnancy and was the standard in Roe vs. Wade.
The state’s antiabortion network has vowed a dogged and well-funded opposition campaign, which could take the price tag for the fight above $70 million.
Protect Women Ohio, the opposition campaign, downplayed the number of signatures, saying they were collected using paid signature-gatherers funded in part of the American Civil Liberties Union, which it described as “anti-parent.”
Abortion foes say such an amendment could trump the state’s abortion-related parental consent law, although the lawyers who wrote it deny that.
“The ACLU’s attempts to hijack Ohio’s constitution to further its own radical agenda would be pathetic if they weren’t so dangerous,” opposition campaign press secretary Amy Natoce said in a statement.
Two legal challenges in Ohio have already gone proponents’ way.
First, the Ohio Supreme Court allowed the measure to proceed as a single issue rather than as two questions, which would have required twice as many signatures. Justices found that the proposed amendment’s call to protect the right to make one’s own decisions about reproductive care — including contraception, fertility treatments, continuing one’s pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion — met the standard of applying to the “same general purpose.”
In a second ruling, the court denied state GOP Atty. Gen. Dave Yost’s request that justices launch a review of the right to an abortion under the Ohio Constitution. That left those arguments to play out in a lower court, keeping alive the purpose of the proposed amendment.
But another ruling that might have a bigger impact favored abortion foes. It allowed an August special election on raising the threshold for passing amendments from a simple majority that has been in place since 1912 to a 60% supermajority. Abortion rights amendments in other states have tended to pass with more than 55% but less than 60% of the vote.
That election also could affect a recreational marijuana question that supporters planned to submit signatures for. The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is pursuing ballot access for its proposal to legalize marijuana for adults after the GOP-controlled Legislature failed to act.