Ohio abortion rights amendment on Tuesday’s ballot

(NewsNation) — Abortion is on the ballot Tuesday in Ohio, where voters will decide whether to enshrine protections into the state constitution.

If passed, the amendment, on the ballot as State Issue 1, would grant a constitutional right to “make and carry out ones own reproductive decisions” about abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, continuing pregnancy and miscarriage care.

Abortions would only be allowed up through “fetal viability,” defined as when the fetus has a “significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures.” There are, however, exceptions if a physician determines a post-viability abortion is necessary “to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”

For Ohioans, this is the second time this year abortion will be a motivating factor at the polls. Voters in August rejected a constitutional amendment that would have raised the threshold for such measures to pass from a simple majority to 60% support.

Democrats largely opposed the August measure, labeling it an attempt to block future attempts at abortion protections. Its failure means the Tuesday’s abortion measure will still only need a simple majority to pass.

The measure is driving a surge in early voter turnout. Groups supporting and opposing the initiative have held rallies and enlisted political leaders and celebrities in recent weeks to draw attention to the race.

The state became a flashpoint in the debate surrounding abortion rights last year when a 10-year-old rape victim traveled to Indiana for the medical procedure. The assailant was later sentenced to life in prison, and the doctor who performed the abortion was reprimanded by the state for speaking about it publicly.

Proponents of abortion rights have been active across the country since the June 2022 Supreme Court decision to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion that granted a federal constitutional right to an abortion.

Other abortion rights initiatives were successful in six states last year, including Republican-leaning Kansas, Kentucky and Montana. Voters in California, Michigan and Vermont also passed amendments protecting the right to an abortion.

Unlike the latter three states, Ohio Republicans have trifecta control of the state government and have been working to defeat the measure. Gov. Mike DeWine recorded an ad with his wife urging people to vote against it.

The reversal of Roe galvanized voters ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, in which Democrats gained a seat in the Senate and had better-than-expected results in the House, which Republicans flipped but control by only a slim majority.

In the year since, Republican-controlled legislatures across the country have enacted a slew of abortion bans, including in Ohio. Abortion is currently legal in the state up through 22 weeks; the Ohio Supreme Court is weighing a six-week ban that was enacted after the fall of Roe but has been on hold while legal challenges play out.

The fate of the ban appears to be in the hands of voters anyway, and both sides have been campaigning aggressively.

Opponents of the measure argue it would allow for late-term abortions in the state and take issue with exceptions post-viability in cases implicating the life of the patient or their health. 

Republican strategist Mark Weaver argued that the word “health” created an “elastic exception” that included “not just the physical health, but the mental health, the emotional health.”

Democrats have pushed back aggressively on that criticism. Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, the group backing the abortion ballot measure, points to Ohio Department of Health 2022 data on abortions that showed only a small fraction of abortions occurred between 21 and 24 weeks of pregnancy, with zero reported after that timeline.

Recent polling has indicated that there’s support for Issue 1, though it may come down to the ballot language itself. A poll released by Institute for Civics and Public Policy at Ohio Northern University last week found 52% of those surveyed supporting the ballot measure based on the certified language, while 68% supported the measure as it was initially proposed by the group. 

The Hill and NewsNation digital reporter Katie Smith contributed to this report.