Ohio women 50 and older are going to the polls after living through the times before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, when abortion was legal, and now, after it was overturned in 2022. and giving power to each state to decide.
This influenced many women’s decisions at the ballot box, although it is only one factor among many, voters told the Capital Journal in interviews last week.
“I am by no means a single-issue voter,” said Mansfield resident and registered Republican Linda Smith.
But abortion rights came to the fore and actually galvanized older women to speak out in the weeks leading up to November’s general election.
U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno made comments about abortion rights and the interests of suburban women that have since been used in advertising campaigns against him.
The comments also renewed conversations on the topic with women who may not be pregnant or need an abortion but remember a time when reproductive health care was riskier and are looking to the future for their daughters and granddaughters.
“Women do not make health care choices and decisions lightly, and they are often complex decisions.” Smith said. “They change lives.”
Moreno’s comments were presented at a Warren County town hall and first made public by: WCMH via a video submitted by a viewer.
“You know, the left has a lot of single-issue voters,” Moreno said. “By the way, unfortunately there are a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women, who say, ‘Listen, this is abortion. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anyone else.” OK. It’s kind of crazy, by the way, but – especially for women over 50 – I think, “I don’t think this will be a problem for you.”
After a moment, he added, “Oh, thank God my wife didn’t hear that part.”
Moreno’s campaign did not respond to OCJ’s request for comment, but in an earlier statement Statehouse Information Deskspokeswoman Reagan McCarthy said Moreno was “clearly joking about how Sherrod Brown and members of the left-wing media like to pretend that the only issue that matters to women voters is abortion.”
Following Moreno’s comments, Democratic independent women voters published an open letter saying Moreno “made fun of many of us over 50” and criticizing him for trying to “dismiss your comments as a joke” after the fact.
“As Ohio women across the political spectrum, we don’t agree on everything,” the letter stated. “But there are matters more important than party politics. We share a strong belief that Ohio women should be able to make their own health care choices, without the involvement of people like you.”
Smith was one of the Republican Party voters who signed the letter.
“It’s disturbing to me that this (case) has become a political pawn,” Smith told the Capital Journal.
The issue comes amid other priorities for older Ohioans, such as inflation, the economy and Social Security.
(*50*)The study was conducted in August and commissioned by AARP showed that 16% of surveyed Ohio voters over 50 ranked the issue first or second among significant issues influencing their votes in the general election. Nine percent of respondents over age 50 ranked it as the most significant issue in the election, ranking it above other single issues such as Social Security, taxes, gun control, crime, overall health care, foreign policy, health care and climate change .
The AARP poll also found that 94% of Ohio voters over 50 plan to vote in the upcoming election.
Overall, Ohio’s incumbent Democratic senator Sherrod Brown had a slight lead over Moreno, 46-42%, but particularly among 50+ voters, the race was reported to be much tighter, with Moreno having a five-point lead in AARP’s August results.
Seville resident Mosie Welch is a registered Democrat in her 60s and readily admits that reproductive rights are at the top of the list of issues she uses to decide her votes. It combines reproductive health care with family issues, as well as the economic health of the country and the concept of individual rights.
“Yes, this is one of the main issues that motivates me to vote, especially at the national level, because I fear what will happen if women no longer have the right to make decisions about their own bodies, which they do not currently have in some states , – Welch said.
As a mother and grandmother, she wants future women to have “the full range of health care necessary to fully enjoy life.”
“I don’t expect to need this health care personally, but I imagine many families are concerned about this issue,” Welch said.
He also worries about the rights of doctors, who have expressed concern about litigation and the potential loss of medical licenses, as well as delays in patient care, as the debate over abortion rights continues following the overturning of Dobbs in Roe v. Wade.
“When this happens and a woman dies, loses her fertility or racks up huge medical bills, it doesn’t just affect one person,” Welch said. “It affects everyone, it affects the community.”
Combining her decades of life experience with the rhetoric of the 2024 election has only served to motivate Welch and her fellow voters, such as Susan Polakoff Shaw.
“I know a lot of women filled with rage, and women my age know what it’s like, they’ve heard what it was like before Roe,” said Shaw, who worked for Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights during the 2023 election. “It’s about being able to control your life and have an impact on your future and fate, as well as your health and family.”
Smith stated that her decisions in the upcoming election are not only being made based on reproductive rights as an older women’s issue, but are being made based on elected officials who “often disregard the will of the people,” which includes legislative attempts and comments intended to undermine the reproductive rights amendment passed by a majority of state voters last year.
“You may not agree with it, but if 57% of the electorate votes for it, you have to respect that,” Smith said.
Smith, however, said she is hopeful about the future of Ohio and even the Republican Party, in part because of the discussion sparked by Moreno’s comments.
“People who rise above differences to fight for common causes “As you see now with women’s reproductive freedoms,” Smith said, “it’s the collective voice and voting that will matter.”
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