Ohioans voted Tuesday night to make abortion rights part of the Buckeye State constitution, the latest in a series of defeats for pro-life activists at the polls.
With 60% of the expected votes, the pro-abortion side led with 56.1% to 43.9%, a margin of more than 280,000 votes out of the more than 2.3 million cast.
The vote result illustrates the thorny nature of abortion politics for Republicans – even in strongly red states – as they struggle over how to handle the issue ahead of next year’s presidential and congressional elections.
The first issue specifically asked voters if they wanted to amend the state constitution to guarantee the right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including, but not limited to, decisions about contraception, fertility treatment, continuation of one’s pregnancy, child care. “spontaneous abortion and abortion.” .”
A Republican-led effort to raise the threshold for passing the amendment to 60% from 50% plus one was soundly defeated in August of this year.
President Biden praised the result Tuesday night, saying in a statement that “Americans voted once again to protect their fundamental freedoms and democracy won.”
“Ohioans and voters across the country rejected attempts by MAGA Republican elected officials to impose extreme abortion bans that endanger women’s health and lives, forcing them to travel hundreds of miles to receive medical care and threaten to criminalize doctors and nurses for providing necessary medical care. medical care that their patients need and that they are trained to provide,” the president said. “This extreme and dangerous agenda is out of step with the vast majority of Americans. My administration will continue to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade into federal law once and for all.”
In a double punch to the guts of Ohio’s social conservatives, voters also backed legalizing marijuana for residents 21 and older in a separate ballot question.
Following the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, many states, including Ohio, enacted so-called “heartbeat bills,” which virtually ban the procedure after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, which pro-life advocates say can occur around the anus. six weeks pregnant mark.
Anti-abortion activists fought the amendment in hopes of avoiding another political setback for the movement. AFP via Getty Images Ohio was the latest state to intervene in the political war over abortion that is sweeping the country. AP Mike DeWine encouraged voters to oppose Number One. AP
Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who passed his state’s heartbeat bill and won re-election in a landslide last year, cut a TV ad opposing passage of Number One along with his wife French.
“I think whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, the constitutional amendment we’re voting on in a couple of weeks goes too far,” DeWine told Fox News Digital last month.
“I would allow abortion at any time during pregnancy,” the governor insisted. “It would negate the Ohio law that we’ve had in place for many, many years that prohibits partial-birth abortion… It also really attacks parental rights and the relationship between a father and, in this case, a daughter.”
Activists against Number One argued that it would trample protections for the unborn. AP
Since Roe was overturned, at least six other states (California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont) have voted on abortion ballot measures. In all of those states the abortion rights side prevailed.
Additionally, Republicans significantly underperformed expectations in the 2022 midterm elections, something many political analysts attributed, at least in part, to the backlash over the abortion issue.
A mix of polls has also shown that the vast majority of voters nationally trust Democrats more than Republicans on the abortion issue.
Protesters march in favor of Number One, calling for the right to abortion to be guaranteed in the Ohio Constitution.AP
A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed that 62% of registered voters say abortion should be “always” or “mostly” legal, while only 30% said the procedure should be “always” or “mostly” legal. “mostly” illegal.
Ohioans also voted overwhelmingly in favor of a second ballot measure legalizing marijuana, making it the 24th state to do so.
The measure will take effect in 30 days and will allow adults over 21 years of age to legally purchase and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis, along with a 10% tax rate.
The legislation will also allow Ohioans to grow marijuana plants at home.
The “yes” vote marks the end of a years-long fight by activists to legalize the use of cannabis for non-medicinal purposes.
Republicans generally oppose cannabis legalization and still have the ability to modify or repeal the new law.
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