On Tuesday, Ohio will hold a special election that could make it harder for the state’s voters to amend their own constitution.
Republican lawmakers in May approved “Issue 1,” a proposal that would raise the threshold required to pass any future ballot measure amending Ohio’s constitution from a simple majority to 60% of voters.
Voting “yes” on Issue 1 would make it more difficult for Ohio citizens to amend the state constitution, raising the threshold to 60% of all voters. The change would be effective immediately.
Voting “no” on Issue 1 would keep the current method of creating and passing a citizen-led state constitutional amendment. Since 1912, Ohio has allowed a simple majority of voters to approve constitutional amendments through ballot questions.
Why did Republicans create Issue 1?
Issue 1 marks a bizarre reversal for Ohio Republicans, who earlier this year enacted a law that eliminates almost all August special elections. Tuesday’s election will cost Ohio an estimated $20m, a price tag Republicans previously said was too high for a day that traditionally sees low voter turnout.
But the GOP backtracked earlier this year, when a coalition of abortion rights advocates in Ohio prepared to bring a ballot initiative on abortion to voters in November 2023.
“The hypocrisy is just incredible, the way they are terrified of this very democratic process,” said Kellie Copeland, executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio and a member of Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom.
Ohio Republicans tend to be less supportive of abortion rights than independent voters and Democrats, but a recent poll from USA Today Network/Suffolk University showed rising support for a state constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion.
“I think the anti-abortion politician strategy is backfiring,” said Jordyn Close, a lifelong Ohioan and deputy director of the Ohio Women’s Alliance. “Ohioans are seeing that the Republicans are willing to absolutely decimate democracy, they are willing to change the way any ballot initiative works, just to limit people’s bodily autonomy.”
The Ohio lawmakers who championed this year’s August special election said Issue 1 “will protect Ohio’s Constitution similar to the way the US Constitution has been protected since our country’s founding”.
How will Issue 1 change the future of abortion in Ohio?
Last month, Ohio officials approved the November ballot initiative on abortion, after Close and her colleagues gathered almost double the amount of signatures needed to pose a state constitutional question to voters.
The November ballot will ask if the Ohio constitution should guarantee a right to abortion.
If Issue 1 passes in August, it would take immediate effect, meaning it will be harder – though not impossible – for Ohio voters to reach the number of votes required to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
Following the US supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade last summer, a 2019 law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy – before most people know they are pregnant – took effect in Ohio. That six-week ban was then put on hold by an Ohio judge in October 2022, restoring abortion rights in the state up to 22 weeks of pregnancy until further notice.
Ohio has since become a critical destination for abortion patients in the surrounding region, as neighboring states like Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia enacted sweeping bans on the procedure.
But the Ohio six-week ban could soon be reinstated by the state supreme court, which is currently reviewing the lower court’s decision to block the law from taking effect.
“I don’t think everyone understands that abortion access in Ohio is really hanging on by a thread right now,” said Jessie Hill, a Cleveland-based law professor who helped lead the lawsuit challenging Ohio’s six-week ban.
Hill said the Ohio supreme court will “almost definitely” wait to release their ruling on the six-week ban until after voters weigh in on the constitutional question in November.
If November’s ballot initiative on abortion fails, abortion rights advocates worry that the conservative majority on the state’s high court could be emboldened to reinstate the six-week ban, which Hill said would “devastate” reproductive healthcare access across the midwest.
“This is the seventh most populous state in the country, keeping abortion available is really important here, just looking at the sheer number of people impacted by a potential ban,” she said. “A win in November, with people proactively voting to affirm the right to abortion, that would be very, very important.”
