Ohioans will be at the polls on Tuesday during a summer special election to vote on a seemingly innocuous question: Should a state require a simple majority or a super majority to pass constitutional amendments?
While it may not seem to be a big deal, Issue One has far-reaching consequences. If it’s not passed, it will be easier for abortion to become an enshrined right in the state’s Constitution when Ohioans vote on the Ohio Right to Make Reproductive Decisions Including Abortion initiative this November. (READ MORE: Conservative Catholic Mark Houck Goes to Washington)
As a result, millions of dollars of funding have poured into campaign coffers on both sides of the aisle in an attempt to influence voters.
Abortion: Center of Issue One Debate
If passed, Issue One would raise the number of votes required to ratify a state constitutional amendment from 50 percent to 60 percent. The measure was proposed by Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) in response to a ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion in Ohio’s Constitution.
“This is 100% about keeping a radical, pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution. The left wants to jam it in there this coming November,” LaRose said at a Lincoln Day event in late May. “Who knows what’s next? Marijuana, or maybe we just get rid of that whole pesky keep and bear arms thing that’s in the Constitution? The left has some really dangerous plans, and this is one of the ways that we can make sure they’re not successful.”
November’s ballot initiative reads in part:
Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on:
- Contraception;
- Fertility treatment;
- Continuing one’s own pregnancy;
- Miscarriage care; and
- Abortion.
The initiative won’t just apply to abortion. Critics have pointed out that it uses language that would remove parental rights and enshrine the “right” to “anything involving ‘reproductive decisions.’ This would include gender transition ‘therapy’ like hormones and irreversible surgeries.” (RELATED: Ohio Bill Is a Trojan Horse That Stifles Parental Rights)
“Under the current framework, wealthy out-of-state interest groups—like the abortion lobby—are able to buy their way onto the ballot every election cycle and insert their political agendas into our constitution,” Lizzie Marbach, Ohio Right to Life’s communications director, told the New Republic. “Passing Issue One puts a stop to that, restoring trust and confidence in our state’s guiding document and making it no longer vulnerable to the political whims of our day.”
National Interest Has Led to Out-Of-State Funding
Because Issue One has such a direct impact on the fate of abortion in the state, campaigns on both sides of the political aisle have received most of their funding from outside of Ohio. Dayton Daily News reported that 84 percent of the $20 million contributed to official Issue One campaigns came from outside the state.
By July 19, the conservative campaign, Protect Our Constitution had raised $4.9 million. A GOP megadonor from Illinois, Richard Uihlein, donated $4 million, making up 82.5 percent of total donations to the campaign. Meanwhile, the “One Person One Vote” campaign raised $14.8 million, receiving large funds from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a progressive D.C.-based organization; the California-based Tides Foundation and American Advocacy Action Fund; and the National Education Association. (READ MORE: Pray for the Dead, Pray for Those Who Persecute You)
When asked about the funds, Protect Our Constitution spokesman Spencer Gross told Dayton Daily News, “The ‘no’ side is utilizing a left wing dark money network in an attempt to assert power over the state’s founding document rather than go through the legislative process.”
Conservatives are pointing to these “dark money” networks as more evidence that a measure like Issue One is necessary to protect the interests of Ohioans.
“The secret is out: Ohio has some of the weakest requirements in the country for passing constitutional amendments and greedy, out-of-state special interest groups with deep pockets know it,” a board member of Protect Women Ohio said in a statement. “That makes Ohio a prime target for radical special interest groups, like the ACLU, to parachute into the state and strip parents of their rights. Enough is enough. It’s time to pass Issue 1 and put long overdue, common-sense protections in place.”