Ohio Voters Overwhelmingly Choose to Protect Abortion Rights
Despite a massive disinformation campaign, a ballot measure to codify abortion in the constitution passed in a state that voted for Donald Trump twice.
AbortionPolitics

Photo:Getty Images
Ohio voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that will codify abortion rights in the state constitution, according to the New York Times. Issue 1—which will also enshrine the right to make decisions about birth control, miscarriage care, and fertility treatment—passed by a vote of 58% to 42%, with about 40% of the ballots in. An NBC News exit poll found that 60% of Ohio voters were unhappy with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The victory came despite Republicans waging an all-out misinformation campaign on the amendment by claiming it would do things like strip parental rights and allow rapists to force survivors to have abortions.
The pro-choice position has now won in all seven states that have put abortion on the ballot since the fall of Roe, with Ohio becoming the first “affirmative” abortion victory in a Republican-leaning state. (Previous pro-choice wins in red states like Kansas and Kentucky came via voters rejecting anti-abortion measures with a “no” vote. Affirmative abortion votes have come in the heavily Democratic states of California, Michigan, and Vermont.) In 2020, Donald Trump won 53% of the vote in Ohio to Joe Biden’s 45%.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) told reporters before the race was called that Ohioans are pro-choice. Manu Raju tweeted that Brown told him: “Ohio has a 6-week ban. The Republicans have done all they can to obscure that, to make it sound like ‘we should be doing something reasonable, let the legislators do what they want.’ Voters reject that.”