Ohio voters on Tuesday voted to codify abortion into the state constitution, The Associated Press is projecting.
The ballot language references abortion, but mostly used euphemisms, such as “reproductive medical treatment” or “reproductive freedom.”
The measure, known as Issue 1, passed with 58% of the vote. It says “an individual right to one’s own reproductive medical treatment” includes abortion, birth control, and fertility treatment. The amendment is titled “The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety.”
While it allows restrictions after fetal viability, the viability is reportedly at the discretion of the doctor, or “the point in a pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician, the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures.”
After the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision in June 2022, sending abortion back to the states, abortion activists proposed the initiative.
“Issue 1 passed because abortion activists and outside Democrat donors ran a campaign of fear to Ohio voters: vote for this ballot measure or women will die,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, in a statement.
“Their pervasive lie that women will die without Issue 1 was propped up by massive ad spending, funded by George Soros and a left-wing media machine, which operated like Planned Parenthood’s PR department,” Dannenfelser added. “The media failed to fact-check this obvious lie and reveal the black-and-white truth in Ohio’s law, which clearly allows pregnant women to receive emergency care.”
She added, “The truth is that every state in the country with a pro-life law allows for timely and necessary care for pregnant women in an emergency.”
On Sunday, Ohio’s moderate Republican governor, Mike DeWine, told CBS News: “If you look at Issue 1—it’s a radical proposal and whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, it just goes much, much too far. It is a radical proposal and does not fit Ohio.”
The measure was designed to reverse a 2019 state law restricting most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of rape and incest or a threat to the mother’s life.
The one-time battleground state that has been leaning Republican in recent election cycles is the only state to have an abortion ballot referendum in this off-year election.
Pro-abortion groups plan to also put similar measures on the ballot in Arizona, Florida, and Missouri.
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