Ohio voters rejected a referendum on Tuesday during a special election that received attention from both sides of the political aisle. Issue One would have raised the threshold of votes required to amend Ohio’s Constitution from a simple majority to 60 percent.
The results are a stinging blow to the pro-life movement in Ohio, which had hoped that the referendum could help make it more difficult to enshrine a radical abortion amendment in the state’s Constitution during the November election — a women’s “right” to “make and carry out” her own “reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.” If the amendment is passed, Ohio would become one of just a handful of states where abortion is legal up to birth.
“The pro-abortion forces that have now submitted their ballot language and their signatures and made the ballot … are buoyed by the election results yesterday. They think it shows overwhelmingly that Ohioans support abortion access,” Matt Dole, a Republican strategist at Communications Counsel, told The American Spectator. “They think that they have the wind at their backs heading into November, needing only 51 percent of the vote to enshrine what I would call radical abortion access in the Ohio constitution.” (RELATED: Democrats Are Telling Unmitigated Lies in Ohio)
President Joe Biden commented on the election, stating: “This measure was a blatant attempt to weaken voters’ voices and further erode the freedom of women to make their own health care decisions. Ohioans spoke loud and clear, and tonight democracy won.”
Dole said that Republicans are facing an uphill battle to make Ohio voters care about November’s ballot initiative to change the Constitution: “If the pro-life side can get into the voter psyche what the actual ballot language says and what it will mean for abortion in Ohio, I think voters will reject it.”
While it is the only state considering a pro-abortion constitutional amendment this election cycle, Ohio certainly isn’t the first state to do so in the wake of the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Last year, California, Michigan, and Vermont altered their state constitutions to enshrine a “right” to abortion. Meanwhile, in Kansas and Kentucky, voters rejected initiatives that would have made abortion not a protected right.
In Ohio, polls seem to suggest that the majority of Ohio voters support so-called abortion “rights.” However, Dole recommended caution when considering the polls’ data, suggesting that pollsters tend to interview the wrong subset of voters and ask the wrong questions.
For example, a Scripps News/YouGov poll asked 500 Ohioans, 10 percent of whom were not registered voters, whether they supported an amendment that “aims to safeguard personal autonomy on matters such as abortion, contraception, and fertility treatment.” The poll concluded that 58 percent of Ohioans “agreed with the amendment’s provisions.”
Considering the difference between the question asked and the text of the provision and the inclusion of Ohioans who do not intend to vote, it’s hardly fair to assume that the poll is accurate.
Dole suggested that Republicans will need to coalesce around a singular message emphasizing the radical nature of the constitutional amendment. “The only thing that should be said is … this language [allows] radical access to abortion, and it is out of step with the overwhelming majority of Ohioans,” he said.
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