Ohio’s Supreme Court late Tuesday ruled that much of the GOP-controlled state ballot board’s language to describe a November question about abortion is accurate, dealing a blow to the abortion rights groups that challenged the board’s description.
The sharply divided court said only one element of the description is misleading and must be rewritten. The justices ruled that all other elements that were challenged, including the substitution of “unborn child” for “fetus,” can remain.
In November, Ohioans will vote on a citizen-initiated amendment that would create a constitutional right to reproductive freedom in the state, which would protect decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing a pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion up to the point of fetal viability.
The Ohio Ballot Board is tasked with writing the actual words of statewide ballot measures. The wording is supposed to be fair and nonpartisan, without attempts to mislead or deceive voters.
Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, the coalition supporting the amendment, sued the board after it adopted wording drafted by the Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose that the coalition said was “a naked attempt to prejudice voters against the Amendment.”
LaRose, who is running in the GOP primary to challenge Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) next year, has publicly opposed the amendment.
But the Supreme Court rejected the argument that the phrase “unborn child” solicits the board’s “ethical judgment or personal view.”
Ohioans, don’t take my statements to say you can stay home. Go vote!
…however, there is majority support for allowing abortion in Ohio. So much so, the GOP broke their own rules to hold a special election to try to change majority to 60% as well as trying to limit new ballot measures by requiring high numbers from every single county in Ohio. This naked GOP power grab was soundly rejected by Ohio voters.
Moreover, a further separate measure is on the upcoming ballot legalizing recreational marijuana. I think that will bring out an additional set of voters that would support both measures.
There’s certainly a big conditional on “if”… but everyone gets out to vote, then it’s probably a shoe in for abortion and weed. Their games are because they’re threatened. It’s not all doom and gloom, it’s just a pretty big freaking “if.”
I don’t think it is AS big an “if” as normal. The vote in August was essentially the dry-run for making abortion legal as a constitutional amendment in Ohio, and its one by a large margin.