November 2023 Ohio Issue 1
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The 2023 Ohio reproductive rights initiative,[2] officially titled "The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety" and listed on the ballot as Issue 1,[3] was a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment adopted on November 7, 2023, by a majority (56.8%) of voters. It codified reproductive rights in the Ohio Constitution, including contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and abortion up to the point of fetal viability,[lower-alpha 1] restoring Roe v. Wade-era access to abortion in Ohio.[4]
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Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety[1] | |||||||||||||
Results | |||||||||||||
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Yes: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% No: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% |
In 2019, the state legislature passed a near-total ban on abortion in Ohio, without exceptions for rape, incest, minors, or the health of the mother. The statute became active after the Supreme Court of the United States held in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. While the ban was in place, multiple children fled the state seeking abortions after being raped.[5] One such case involved a ten-year-old girl from Columbus, Ohio, who traveled to Indiana (where abortion was legal at the time) for the procedure, generating national attention and becoming a central campaign issue.[5] A state court put the ban on hold while a challenge alleging it violated the Ohio Constitution was heard.[6] Several members of the "no" campaign had called for bans on forms of birth control that prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg and in vitro fertilization if the initiative failed.[7][8]
The "yes" campaign drew support from Ohio medical organizations,[9] doctors,[9] economists,[10] trade unions,[11] editorial boards,[11] reproductive rights groups,[11] and several religious organizations.[12] They argued that a "yes" vote would further limited government, protect bodily autonomy and religious liberty, while preventing interference with patient-physician privacy.[8] The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology, alongside other professional associations of doctors, campaigned for Issue 1.[8][13] In late August 2023, former President Donald Trump, who appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, condemned six-week abortion bans, including Ohio's, as going "too far" and a "terrible mistake".[14][15] Religious groups were generally divided on the issue.[lower-alpha 2][12]
Ohio is a moderately conservative state – Donald Trump easily won the state over Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election – so the results of the referendum were widely seen as a bellwether for the national opinion on abortion rights.[17] Voters have supported the "pro-choice" side along overwhelming and bipartisan margins in referendums since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.[18][19] Ohio's neighbor Michigan had a similar referendum a year earlier in November of 2022, which passed by a nearly identical margin.
Ohio's Issue 1 was the first time since the Dobbs decision that voters of a conservative state were asked whether to enshrine abortion protections in their state constitution. As such, the referendum's approval was widely interpreted as evidence for a national consensus in favor of broad abortion rights.[20][21] Among those between 18 and 24 years old, an estimated 76% voted for Issue 1.[22] Some conservative political analysts and commentators called a continued alliance with the anti-abortion movement "untenable" and an "electoral disaster", and urged the party to adopt a more pro-choice stance on the issue.[23] Exit polling indicated that 61% of Ohioans agree that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, versus only 37% who disagree.[24]