Pro-choice advocates file paperwork for Ohio referendum on abortion

Today, reproductive health advocates in Ohio are handing in language to the state’s attorney general, looking to bring a referendum on abortion to the ballot box in November 2023.

Following the US supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade last summer – which had secured a federal right to abortion – an Ohio ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy immediately came into effect. That ban was then put on hold by an Ohio judge in October 2022, restoring abortion rights in the state up to 22 weeks of pregnancy until further notice.

But the group bringing the petition, Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights (OPRR), are hoping to put the issue to rest.

“Ohioans are perilously close to losing access to safe, legal, comprehensive reproductive medical care,” OPRR executive director Dr Lauren Beene said in a virtual press conference today, adding: “This commonsense amendment ensures that physicians will be able to provide the care our patients need and deserve free from government interference.”

Once the language has been submitted, the Ohio Ballot Board and attorney general each has ten days to review it. If approved, campaigners will need to collect in excess of 400,000 signatures in order to qualify to be on the ballot. If the ballot language is denied, campaigners – a coalition of lawyers, doctors and activists from organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights – will have to make changes and re-submit it.

The ballot could be the seventh such ballot to put the question of abortion directly to voters. In August 2022, voters in Kansas sent shock waves through the country when they rejected a ballot initiative brought by an anti-choice legislature, looking to confirm there was no right to abortion protected by the state’s constitution.

Voting 59% to 41% in favor of protecting abortion rights, the ballot reaffirmed an earlier decision by the Kansas supreme court in 2019 stating abortion is indeed protected in the state’s constitution, under the right to autonomy. The loss sent a stark warning to anti-abortion advocates that abortion restrictions may not be successful at the ballot box.

A string of similar wins for abortion rights during the 2022 midterms only added to that warning, when ballot initiatives brought in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont all further secured abortion rights when put to a popular vote.

Since the midterms, legislatures across the country have made moves to blunt the force of citizen-led ballot initiatives in states that allow them. At present, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Idaho, Oklahoma and North Dakota are all weighing bills that would make it harder for ballot initiatives to be passed.

In Ohio, a bill has been introduced looking to raise the threshold for ballot proposals to be accepted, from a simple majority to 60% of the vote. It would also require those bringing a petition to collect signatures from all 88 Ohio counties instead of the 44 counties currently required to get a measure on the ballot.

That same bill did not garner enough support to get past the house when it was brought in a legislative session just a few months ago, in December 2022. If passed this time, the question of whether to restrict the citizen-led ballot initiative process will also be put to voters in a referendum in November 2023.

Polling suggests that Ohioans support keeping abortion mostly legal in the state. Ohio Republicans tend to be less supportive of abortion rights than independent voters and Democrats, but research on a small sample by Suffolk University in 2022 suggests that most Ohioans would vote to protect abortion rights given the opportunity.

“The tremendous and unprecedented level of grassroots support for our effort to constitutionally protect reproductive rights and abortion access is truly inspiring and demonstrates how necessary this issue is for Ohioans,” OPRR president Dr Marcela Azevedo said at the press conference.

“We are eager to begin collecting the signatures needed to place the amendment on the ballot so Ohioans, rather than government and extremist politicians, have the opportunity to determine the future of reproductive health care in our state,” she said.