Conflict among Ohio abortion foes could preview election-year fights
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Abortion opponents in Ohio are at odds not only over how to frame their opposition to a reproductive rights initiative on the state's November ballot but also over their longer-term goals on how severely they would restrict the procedure.
The disagreements, roiling the anti-abortion side just six weeks before Election Day, are providing a window into the challenges the wider movement is preparing to navigate next year. Initiatives to protect reproductive rights are expected in multiple states and abortion will be a central issue in candidate races up and down the ballot.
Scattershot campaign messaging in Ohio hints at some of the internal conflict among members of the broad anti-abortion coalition aligned against the constitutional amendment that seeks to protect abortion access in Ohio.
Early ads played on voters' fears by warning the amendment, known as Issue 1, would be a gateway to teenagers getting abortions and gender-transition surgeries without their parents’ consent. Other efforts focused on advancing legal arguments about the amendment's specific phrasing, including the meaning of “reproductive health care."
In its first statewide TV ad, which began airing last week, the opposition campaign Protect Women Ohio went in yet another direction. It combined clips of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden on screen to try to unite Republicans and Democrats against the proposal's ability to protect abortions into the ninth month of pregnancy, even though health statistics show later-term abortions are a rarity, generally reserved for life-threatening circumstances.
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