The 2023 elections may not have the fireworks of 2024, but there is still plenty up for grabs. In this "off-year," most of which takes place on Nov. 7, Virginia will be keenly watched, particularly by followers of Gov. Glenn Youngkin and whether he can springboard Republican success into national aspirations. Meanwhile, the governor's mansion is up for grabs in Kentucky and Mississippi. New Jersey's Republicans believe they have a real shot at turning the state red in legislative elections, while there are also fierce mayoral and district attorney battles throughout the United States. Voters will also decide several fascinating referendums, particularly in Ohio, Maine, and Texas. This Washington Examiner series, November to Remember, will dive into all of these and more over the following two weeks. Part Nine will deal with Ohio's ballot initiative to enshrine abortion and reproductive rights into the Constitution of the Buckeye state.
Early voting on Ohio's abortion and reproductive rights amendment on the ballot this November has already drawn a record voter turnout, prompting anti-abortion advocates to characterize the battle in Ohio as the framework for advocacy for the several abortion amendments being weighed for the 2024 election season.
"What we've built here is going to be a model that can be replicated going forward," Stephen Billy, vice president of state affairs for the anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, told reporters. "We have an uphill fight from here to Election Day, but there's a lot of reason to believe that things are a lot closer [than they seem]."
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Ohio Issue 1 would enshrine the right to "make and carry out one's own reproductive decisions," including but not limited to contraception, fertility treatments, miscarriage care, and abortions.
The amendment would also prevent the state from acting "directly or indirectly [to] burden penalize or interfere with or discriminate against" a citizen's reproductive choices, which anti-abortion advocates argue would nullify extant state laws regarding parental consent for abortion performed on minors and eliminate safety standards for abortion facilities.
"They wrote very specifically a broad amendment because they knew that Ohio is truly a battleground state," said Mehek Cooke, spokeswoman for Protect Women Ohio, the coalition of anti-abortion advocacy groups in the state.
The direct amendment itself will not appear on the ballot. Rather, Ohio law requires a summary of citizen-initiated amendments or statutes to appear on the ballot.
The summary of the amendment, written by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is running for Senate in 2024, replaces medical terms "zygote" and "fetus" with "unborn child" four times, including when describing the conditions in which a physician can allow an abortion past viability.
Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, a leading pro-abortion rights group in the state, contended in a lawsuit against the summary that the language "unnecessarily introduces an ethical judgment." The Ohio Supreme Court, however, ruled in September that LaRose's language does not unduly persuade voters.
Anti-abortion advocates endured a steep loss during a special election on Aug. 8 closely related to the abortion debate. During the summer's special election, Ohioans vetoed an initiative that would have required a 60% vote threshold rather than the simple majority standard to pass state constitutional amendments.
Pro-abortion rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which drafted the abortion amendment, framed the Aug. 8 measure as the elimination of "one man, one vote."
Anti-abortion advocates argue that the strong labor union influence, especially in the heavily industrial northeastern Ohio, in part made the vote more difficult in August. Populist-leaning Republicans, who proved to be the decisive vote against tightening rules to amend the Constitution, will most likely again be the deciding factor in November regarding the vote solely on abortion.
"There were a lot of different ways to think about it in August, and it was never about abortion," Amy Natoce of PWO told the Washington Examiner. "This November is very different. It says very clearly it is about extreme abortion, women's health, and protecting the unborn. .... People know what is at stake."
Billy previously criticized the Republican Party of Ohio for not clearly communicating with voters regarding the consequences of the August election. Anti-abortion advocates have said, however, that the condemnation of the abortion amendment from well-known party leaders in the state, including Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), has been invaluable.
"Our biggest strength in the pro-life movement, without question, is the organic strength of the numbers that we have among real people who reject extreme abortion absolutism," SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser told reporters. "They have to hear the information somehow about what's at stake."
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Abortion rights advocates in several states, including Florida, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, are working on achieving the necessary thresholds for abortion rights amendments in 2024.
Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights did not respond to the Washington Examiner's request for comment.