In Ohio, abortion rights fuel fight over ballot measures
The group has reason to be optimistic: Polling conducted after Roe was overturned and before the 2022 midterms found that 59.1 percent of Ohioans would vote yes on an abortion-rights amendment.
But getting there will not be easy. Republican state lawmakers are already working to push through what appears to be an attempt to thwart the coalition’s efforts by passing a bill (HJR 6) to modify the requirements for the referendum and initiative process by raising the threshold to pass from a simple majority vote of more than 50 percent to a 60 percent supermajority.
The measure—which, in theory, could be the last ballot measure to require support from only 50 percent of voters to pass—would go before voters in a special election this August, and Republicans in Ohio have openly admitted that efforts to make ballot measures harder to pass are explicitly aimed at restricting abortion access.
Meanwhile, abortion opponent Dave Yost, the Ohio state attorney general, is fighting the legal challenges to the heartbeat law, arguing that the lower court erred when it issued a preliminary injunction.
“If our reproductive freedom amendment is on the ballot in 2023, we will need to meet the existing standard for passage: 50 percent plus 1,” Beene said. “If the amendment is not on in ’23 and the 60 percent [requirement passes], the repro-rights issue is dead because few ballot measures garner 60 percent of the vote. Ensuring that we are working under the current rules is just one of the many reasons we believe the amendment must be on in ’23. We just want our patients to be able to access necessary medical care.”
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