In less than 24 hours, the polls will close in Ohio, one of six states where you can vote in elections beyond this year, but a crucial one nonetheless. A number of initiatives will be on the ballot in the Buckeye State, including one that will ask voters whether to completely change its constitution to allow abortion up to birth. Moreover, it will also abolish parental rights not only in the field of abortion, but also in the field of gender reassignment.
The ballot initiative is known as “Ohio Issue 1, The Right to Make Reproductive Decisions, Including the Abortion Initiative,” and its text reads as follows:
Proposed fix:
• Establish in the Ohio Constitution an individual right to his or her own reproductive health care, including but not narrow to abortion;
• Create legal protections for any person or entity that assists an individual in obtaining reproductive medical treatment, including, but not narrow to, abortion;
• Prohibit a State from directly or indirectly burdening, punishing or prohibiting abortion before the unborn child has been declared viable, unless the State can demonstrate that it is applying the least restrictive means;
• Grant the doctor treating a pregnant woman the authority to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether the unborn child is viable;
• Allow the state to prohibit abortion only if the pregnant woman’s physician determines that the unborn child is viable and only if the physician does not consider abortion necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman; AND
• Always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of its viability, if, in the discretion of the attending physician, the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman.
If adopted, the amendment will enter into force 30 days after the elections.
Before Election Day, Townhall listened to a press telegram from Protect Women Ohio, the lead organization urging Ohioans to vote against the initiative. Meanwhile, supporters of the initiative include not only those providing out-of-state funding, but also radical groups such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.
People speaking during the conversation, including the May postman from the Independent Women’s Law Center; Professor Lee Strang; and attorney Megan Wold, all emphasized during the conversation that Number 1 is an extreme and far-reaching initiative.
It would effectively take the abortion issue out of the hands of Ohio voters, who might otherwise decide the issue through their elected officials. Even judges would be bound by the initiative. As Wold pointed out during the roll call, a vote for No. 1 would be “a vote for a new legal regime.” The process is already underway without interference from those pushing Issue 1 as the Ohio Supreme Court weighs the state’s abortion law banning the procedure once a heartbeat is detected, after about six weeks.
Mailman also began the conversation by pointing out an example of how the local media was misleading on this issue. “What is Ohio 1st Edition? We explain the proposed amendment to the right to abortion” reads an October 19 headline in the Ohio Capitol Journal.
Despite the amendment’s claim to “clarify” readers, it was riddled with bias, especially regarding one quote in particular from supposedly “impartial” legal expert and Case Western Reserve University law professor Atiba Ellis. According to Ellis, “[t]a constitutional amendment would likely restore the status quo of the law before the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the situation with a repeal Roe“
Issue 1 would be NO the idea is to maintain the status quo because abortion would be even less restricted than before Roe v. Wade, which the United States Supreme Court overturned last June under Art Dobbs v. Jackson thing. This also applies to other issues beyond abortion and to minor children, given that the text of the ballot initiative intentionally reads “individual.” Strang said the initiative is “carefully crafted” and involves making “intentional choices about language” so that does not protect parental rights or ban late-term abortions, even for partial births. The abortionist who invented the gruesome partial birth procedure Martin Haskellhe came from Ohio.
The “least restrictive measures” mentioned in the text would also be an “impossibly high burden,” Mailman mentioned during the phone call, given that it is up to the abortionist to decide what constitutes a “health” exception. IN Doe v. Bolton, an accompanying matter Roe, the “health” exception was deliberately designed to be vague and could even mean, for example, family size.
It’s worth noting that even abortion advocates admit that issue 1 would be “overkill.” It contains Toledo Blade editorial office.. Both perspectives were published in the Columbus Dispatch: including calling on voters to reject this initiative. Even The New York Times had a few pleasant surprises through recognition there is confusion.
If Issue 1 were passed, voters would have very narrow options to bring the issue of abortion back to the people. Both sides seem to at least acknowledge this. Wold emphasized, among others: asking the City Hall that the solution would be to redo the entire process and restore the state constitution. She cautioned that “it sounds a little more likely than it actually is,” mainly because of the cost. The Ohio Legislature could also pass a joint resolution that would then put the issue back on the ballot, but that would be cumbersome.
Other state-level abortion initiatives in the United States where Dobbs is the law of the later country Roe was overturned, they followed the path of the pro-abortion side. This even applies to Republican states. However, in many of these states, the pro-life movement has tried to push ballot initiatives, but has been unsuccessful. In this case, it’s the pro-abortion movement putting its radical views before Ohioans for a vote.
Secretary of State @FrankLaRose is with our wonderful volunteers, reminding Ohioans that we must all vote NO on issue #1 tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/gRyV8A0cRR
— Protect Ohio Women (@ProtectWomenOH) November 6, 2023
