Biden hails Ohio voters for rejecting measure supposed to thwart an abortion rights vote

President Biden is hailing Ohio voters for voting down an initiative that will have required 60% help for voter-driven modifications to the state structure as an alternative of a easy majority.

GOP lawmakers pushed Issue 1 forward of a November battle over a constitutional modification that will bolster abortion entry within the red-leaning state. Yet Buckeye State voters defeated it, 57% to 43%.

“This measure was a blatant attempt to weaken voters’ voices and further erode the freedom of women to make their own health care decisions,” Mr. Biden mentioned. “Ohioans spoke loud and clear, and tonight democracy won.”

Ohio’s rejection of Issue 1 confirmed the enduring energy of abortion rights as an electoral problem within the wake of the Supreme Court resolution overturning Roe v. Wade, which opened the door to state restrictions.

Abortion is authorized till 20 weeks into being pregnant in Ohio whereas a authorized keep is in place in opposition to a six-week restrict that was accredited within the wake of the 2022 Supreme Court resolution.

Pro-choice teams consider the six-week threshold will probably be upheld down the highway, so they’re pushing the November measure to permit abortion round 24 weeks into being pregnant, the fetal-viability commonplace used within the 1973 Roe resolution. Their constitutional modification additionally leaves fetal viability as much as the judgment of the pregnant affected person’s physician.

Voters in Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan voted in favor of abortion entry final 12 months, but pro-choice teams feared GOP lawmakers discovered a option to blunt that momentum by elevating the brink for modifications to 60% of voter help. They fell quick, forcing pro-life teams to regroup.

“A broad coalition of passionate pro-life Ohioans came together to fight parental rights opponents and try to take victory from the jaws of defeat. But the silence of the establishment and business community in Ohio left a vacuum too large to overcome,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America mentioned after the vote tally.

The group warned that big-moneyed pursuits will play an outsized function in preserving and increasing abortion entry.

“Sadly, attacks on state constitutions are now the national playbook of the extreme pro-abortion Left,” it mentioned. “That is why everyone must take this threat seriously and recognize progressives will win if their opponents are scared into submission by the pro-abortion Left.”

Ohio Democrats, in the meantime, began fundraising for the November battle over abortion.