Ohio Abortion Battle, Starting in August

USA Today reports on a proposed amendment to Ohio's constitution legalizing abortion. It will come up for a vote in November, but with a twist.

This comes after the governor there signed into law a ban on the procedure when there is detectable cardiac activity in a fetus.

"For sure, I think folks are really paying attention," said Heather Shumaker, director of state abortion access for the National Women's Law Center, which supports the amendment. That's especially true in states where Republican-controlled state governments have imposed strict limits on abortions in the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. "We know that ballot measures have emerged as one of the most promising strategies to preserve abortion access." [bold added]

It is good to know that, absent the Democrats adopting what I see as a workable strategy -- of focusing on explicitly legalizing abortion -- it is being implemented anyway.

Activists on both sides of the reproductive freedom debate will be watching closely, trying to hone tactics for future statewide battles.

Two things already stand out regarding what the anti-freedom side is trying. First, if I read the story right, there is an attempt to move the goal posts on what it will take to pass the measure:

A special election on Aug. 8 could change the prospects for passage.

Now, ballot measures in Ohio need a simple majority, 50% plus one, to amend the state constitution. Under the proposal being voted on next month, the bar would be raised to 60%. Support in the new survey for the abortion-rights measure, at 58%, would fall just short of that level. [bold added]

Second, we have an attempt to re-frame this as a parental rights issue:

... Protect Women Ohio, a coalition opposing the proposal ... describe the measure as "anti-parent," arguing it undermines the authority of parents to make decisions about abortion and gender assignment issues for their minor children.

Let's look at the text of the measure as reported by Ballotpedia:

Abortion is completely banned by local ordinance in Lebanon, Ohio. (Image by R.P. Piper, via Wikimedia Commons, license.)

Article I, Section 22. The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety

A. Every individual has a right to make and carry out one's own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on:

1. contraception;
2. fertility treatment;
3. continuing one's own pregnancy;
4. miscarriage care; and
5. abortion.

B. The State shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against either:

1. An individual's voluntary exercise of this right or
2. A person or entity that assists an individual exercising this right,

unless the State demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means to advance the individual's health in accordance with widely accepted and evidence-based standards of care.

However, abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability. But in no case may such an abortion be prohibited if in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient's treating physician it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient's life or health.

C. As used in this Section:

1. "Fetal viability" means "the point in a pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient's treating physician, the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures. This is determined on a case-by-case basis."
2. "State" includes any governmental entity and any political subdivision.

D. This Section is self-executing.

Setting aside the question about pregnant minors, I fail to see how this amendment could undermine the rights of parents, particularly to prevent their children being surgically mutilated as is so currently fashionable on the left.

This strikes me as both dishonest scare mongering and a trivialization of the one serious issue buried under the ridiculous false alternative between "gender fluidity" and opposition to any and all sexual reassignment surgery, including for adults.

This measure isn't perfect, but if I lived in Ohio, I'd vote against the August measure and for the above proposal.

-- CAV