This year’s election in Ohio is a test run. 

The state will be voting in November on constitutional amendment Issue 1 — not to be confused with the one that Ohio voters rejected earlier this month during a special election, which was also called Issue One. If passed, this amendment will enshrine killing an unborn child as a right in the state’s Constitution. 

If that happens, Ohio will be the first Republican-controlled state to choose to protect abortion this radically since the landmark Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization returned the abortion issue to the states. So, with the nation watching, both sides have entered into the fight over Issue 1 with guns blazing. 

How to Describe Killing Unborn Children

On Monday, the Ohio Ballot Board approved the official language that will appear on the ballot by a 3–2 vote along party lines. The language accurately describes the amendment in terms of an “unborn child.” Later that same day, a pro-abortion activist group and five individual voters filed a lawsuit claiming that by using the words “unborn child” instead of the more obtuse “fetal viability,” the board is engaging in a “naked attempt to prejudice voters against the amendment.” (READ MORE: Nikki Haley Misses the Mark)

The ballot language, as it has been adopted to appear on Ohio’s ballot in November, was drafted by GOP Secretary of State Frank LaRose. LaRose, who chairs the Ballot Board, has been open about his opposition to the amendment. The text reads in part:

The proposed amendment would…. 

• Prohibit the citizens of the State of Ohio from directly or indirectly burdening, penalizing, or prohibiting abortion before an unborn child is determined to be viable….

• Always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability if, in the treating physician’s determination, the abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.

Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, a “coalition of statewide reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations,” argued in the lawsuit that the adopted ballot language does not accurately represent the text of the amendment. It claims that in one portion, it promotes an “objective falsehood” and argues that in others, it “inverts” the proposed protections and “obscures” the scope of the amendment. (READ MORE: The Pro-Life Dilemma and the Politics of Prudence)

The coalition, which is endorsed by left-wing organizations including the Ohio chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Ohio Communist Party, and TransOhio, claims:

The Amendment’s text is direct, clear, and concise—and by definition accurate. The adopted ballot language is anything but. The ultimate question before the Court is accordingly quite simple: whether the people of Ohio can be trusted, on November 7, to read, interpret, and weigh the Amendment’s text (or an accurate summation of it) for themselves, or whether they will instead be subjected to a naked attempt to mislead perpetrated by their own elected officials.

The lawsuit specifically targets the words “unborn child,” which appear multiple times throughout the ballot text, claiming that the term “aims improperly to mislead Ohioans and persuade them to oppose the Amendment.” It argues that the court should require the Ballot Board to either put the full text of the amendment on the ballot or rewrite its description.

Accurately Describing the Amendment Is Key

By accurately describing in stark terms the impact enshrining abortion in the constitution will have — namely, by clarifying that it legalizes abortion up to birth so long as a physician can claim that giving birth to the child threatens the life or health of the mother — the currently approved text for the ballot could be crucial in Ohioans’ decision to vote to protect life.

A USA Today Network/Suffolk University poll conducted last month claimed that the “amendment… [was] backed by a double-digit margin, 58%-32%.” That poll presented “likely voters” with the text of the amendment before asking them whether they would support it. (READ MORE: Democrats Are Telling Unmitigated Lies in Ohio) 

However, a Pew Research poll found Ohioans far less radical: Support for legal abortion in all or most cases was neck-and-neck with support for making abortion illegal in all or most cases (48 percent to 47 percent). 

Ensuring that an accurate description of the amendment appears on the ballot will be absolutely essential to ensuring that Ohioans can vote for the Constitution they actually want.