Dear John,
Tuesday night’s referendum in Ohio saw another decisive victory for the majority who support abortion rights: voters showed up in resounding numbers to reject a proposal that would have made it harder to pass future constitutional amendments—including one on the November ballot to add the guarantee of abortion rights to the state’s constitution.
The hastily scheduled off-year special election was yet another attempt by Republicans to curtail abortion access by changing the election rules and making it harder to pass Ohio ballot measures—but voters were having none of it. Voter turnout was nearly double that of the 2022 state primary elections—in which candidates for governor and U.S. senator were on the ballot. Per polling from the Associated Press last year, 59 percent of Ohio voters believe abortion should generally be legal.
“This measure was a blatant attempt to weaken voters’ voices and further erode the freedom of women to make their own healthcare decisions,” said President Joe Biden. “Ohioans spoke loud and clear, and tonight democracy won.” In November Ohioans must vote yes to enshrine abortion.
On the day of the Ohio special election, advocates in Arizona launched a signature-gathering drive to qualify a ballot measure for the 2024 election that would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. The proposed amendment declares that “Every individual has a fundamental right to abortion.”
Several other states besides Arizona, including Missouri, Florida, Maryland, and South Dakota, are likely to have similar measures on their November 2024 ballots. Given last year’s electoral victories—all seven states considering abortion measures came down on the pro-abortion rights side, including conservative strongholds like Kentucky and Kansas—the Ohio victory proves again that reproductive rights overwhelmingly matter to voters, especially women.
Last week saw another significant victory: a Texas judge ruled in favor of a group of doctors and women whose health and lives were imperiled as a result of the state’s abortion bans. The 15 plaintiffs, many of whom almost died because they were denied abortion care that would generally be standard in light of the grave pregnancy complications they experienced, are suing to block the state’s bans. The judge also ruled that the state’s notorious SB 8—the six-week abortion ban with the “bounty hunter” provision that allows citizens to sue anyone who aids and abets abortion—is unconstitutional.
The victory was unfortunately short-lived—the state of Texas immediately appealed the ruling to the state’s supreme court, and per Texas law, as soon as an appeal is filed, a ruling is stayed.
Despite bans and restrictions, support for abortion rights has only grown in the wake of the Dobbs decision’s overturn of Roe v. Wade—with 61 percent of American adults supporting abortion rights, per polling from PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist. These findings echo a poll from Ms. and the Feminist Majority Foundation in collaboration with Celinda Lake and Lake Research Partners—which found that ahead of last fall’s 2022 midterms, abortion and women’s rights were the most important issues for young women across nine battleground states. Among women of all ages, the poll found that abortion was tied with inflation as the most important issue.
Following the Ohio victory, Lake, who is advising the Ohio campaign, observed: “There had been some question about whether abortion had waned as a motivator — it certainly has not. I think this is a road map for 2024. It’s a road map to how we energize our voters.”
As we head into next year’s elections, it’s clear candidates with an abortion rights position have a distinct advantage—provided they campaign on it.
Onward,
