1 yr. ago • 98%

Voters in Ohio reject GOP-backed proposal that would have made it tougher to protect abortion rights

apnews.com Voters in Ohio reject GOP-backed proposal that would have made it tougher to protect abortion rights

While abortion was not directly on the special election ballot, the result marks the latest setback for Republicans in a conservative-leaning state who favor imposing tough restrictions on the procedure.

Ohio voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a Republican-backed measure that would have made it more difficult to change the state’s constitution, setting up a fall campaign that will become the nation’s latest referendum on abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nationwide protections last year.

BrainWorms @lemm.ee Voters in Ohio reject GOP-backed proposal that would have made it tougher to protect abortion rights

Ohio @midwest.social Voters in Ohio reject GOP-backed proposal that would have made it tougher to protect abortion rights

49 comments

Abortion is the big ticket item and the headline isn't wrong but it's also more than that- it would've basically given the Ohio Republican Party power for decades. They already illegally gerrymander, etc. and this would've made them even more unaccountable.

Current rules- 44 counties to get signatures, 10 day cure period to gather more if you fall short, 50+% to pass.

Proposed rules- 5% from ALL 88 counties, no cure period, 60% to pass.

Essentially, grassroots initiatives already have a high hurdle and this would've made them effectively impossible. Only big moneyed interests could ever get anything on the ballot again.

Very, very happy it failed.
118
- From my city's Democrat group:
  
  What landmark changes to Ohio law would have FAILED under Issue 1?
  
  In just the 21st century:
  
  2000: Clean Ohio Fund; state can sell enviro bonds (57% in favor...would have FAILED)
  
  2005: Third Frontier program to modernize Ohio's economy (54% in favor...would have FAILED)
  
  2006: Increasing minimum wage (57% in favor...would have FAILED)
  
  2009: Legalizing gambling at casinos in Cbus, CLE, Cincy, Toledo (53% in favor...would have FAILED)
  
  2015: Barring businesses from using amendment process to form monopolies (51% in favor...would have FAILED)
  
  Let's go further back now:
  
  1923: Remove the phrase “white male” from parts of the constitution describing VOTER ELIGIBILITY (56% in favor...would have FAILED)
  
  1933: Giving counties authority to create city charters with "home rule" (53% in favor...would have failed)
  
  1933: Set the 10-mill property tax limit that local governments can impose without getting approval from voters (59.7% in favor...would have FAILED)
  
  1949: Ending the practice of straight-ticket voting; voters must mark their candidates, not just check off a party (57% in favor...would have failed)
  
  1953: Creation of Ohio state school board, which advises local school districts on education policy (57% in favor...would have failed)
  
  1953: Allowing People of Color to serve in the Ohio National Guard (57% in favor...would have failed)
  
  1961: Allowing Women to serve in Ohio National Guard (50.1% in favor...would have failed)
  
  1975: Allowing charitable orgs to run bingo games, a form of gambling (54% in favor...would have failed)
  
  1978: Prison labor reform (54% in favor...would have failed)
  
  1982: Enabled lower-interest, first-time home-buyer programs that continue today (57% in favor...would have failed)
  
  1990: Tax credits and other steps to help finance housing projects (53% in favor...would have failed)
  
  84
  
  This is some great perspective on its effect, thank you.
  
  27
  
  So basically everything good in the last century wouldve failed and this law would’ve ensured Ohio would slide into the same useless bucket as Alabama on the national scale
  
  23
  
  Man looking at some of these with the years next to them and Ohio used to be kinda based
  
  And yeah there are other things that may desperately need to be changed about our constitution that wouldn’t clear the 60% mark even beyond abortion. Namely our constitution currently prohibits recognition of gay marriage, which while no longer an issue in the Obergefell era, may become relevant again depending on who bribes the Supreme Court.
  
  They’re trying to force the big Cs to live at the whims of rural Ohioans despite how close the urban/rural population is
  
  3
Ohio is about to get real cool. The abortion vote is going to enshrine it in the Ohio consitution, but along side it, legal marijuana is also on the same ballot.

Go register and go vote!

53
- If Ohio gets legal abortion and legal marijuana, I will officially declare that it lose it's "most mediocre state" title
  
  10
  
  This. Is. Wendy’s!
  
  2
Issue 1 was bad and I'm glad to see that the voters rejected it. That they did highlights the growing disconnect from Republican politicians and Republican voters on key issues like Abortion and Marijuana.

45
- It's really spooky how the GOP doesn't seem to really care about popular opinion anymore.
  
  That doesn't end anywhere good.
  
  8
  
  Ohio GOP hasn't cared about the rule of law for as long as I can remember. More famously, they were ordered to draw fair voting maps multiple times running into 2016, and kept submitting maps that didn't even come close to passing muster, including submitting the exact same map twice AND submitting the current voting map.
  
  9
Who'da thunk that making women have their rapists' babies would be a nationally unpopular proposition? One could never have foreseen such a thing.

43
- Not just women, children too. Part of how this was sold was as a “parent’s rights” thing to enable preventing minors from having abortions without parental consent.
  
  26
  
  'If I didn't want my daughter to have a baby I wouldn't have impregnated her in the first place.'
  
  I think that if you're in a position to make policy and your opponents are writing jokes like the one above, then surely you should be thinking about what you're doing... except I cannot feature that they're really that stupid. One thing I have heard recently is the idea that segregationists are segregating themselves by trying to make red states impossibly toxic to live in for anyone from the outgroups.
  
  14
Fuck the GOP and fuck anyone who supports that trash.

41
Every time something doesn’t go their way, they change the rules.

This quote from the resident is spot on!

38
Vote this coming election and don't let anyone tell you your vote doesn't matter!

If it didn't, the Republicans wouldn't be trying bullshit like this!

#VOTE EVERY ELECTION!

28
Because fuck you, GOP. That's why.

25
Always good for people when the GOP/Nazi party loses.

21
- Also when they lose, but potato/tomato.
  
  0
Way to go Ohio!

13
Keep up this energy!

8
I only wish it was no by 60% then it would be denied by their own standards.

5
- By their standards, it only needed to be no by 40%
  
  5
This isn't just about abortion, I don't get why all the headlines are focusing on that

It's really hard to see why this is a partisan issue, "let's make it hard to change the constitution" doesn't really sound like an inherently right-wing position.
-21
- Making it harder to change the constitution is an inherently conservative position. That's basically what conservative means – it's a desire to keep things mostly how they are (or how they used to be, in the supposed "good old days").
  
  21
- The GOP regularly violates their own rules and norms whenever it suits them. Small government? Personal freedom?
  
  19
- Because it was pushed through as an august election not long after august elections were banned (due to high cost and low turnout), but almost immediately after legalizing abortion wound up on the November ballot. Sure it’s about more than abortion, but it’s also very much about abortion, otherwise it would’ve waited until November.
  
  13
  
  Hey! So I had just learned about the historically low turnout of August elections, but what is the high cost about?
  
  1
- The reason people focus on the abortion angle is because there is a vote to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution in November. This bill would apply to that vote. It would also make it harder to try again and harder to have grassroots initiatives in general.
  
  I wonder why changing the constitution is suddenly an issue the Ohio GOP wants to vote on…
  
  10
- You are thinking of the Old GOP. New GOP doesn't vote on conservative values. They're just an underfed truffle pig scrounging in the dirt for any crumbs that will increase their power. It's pathetic. Theyll eat their own leg if they get hungry enough.
  
  9
  
  Fair enough. I love the old GOP. The new GOP is almost as bad as the Democrat party at this point
  
  -15
- Headlines are focusing on abortion because this proposal was very clearly meant to make it substantially harder for the later vote on an amendment to protect abortion rights to succeed. The GOP knows that, when put to a direct vote, at least 50% will vote for legal abortion. But in a state like Ohio, 60% just might be a realistic ceiling.
  
  I mean, do you really think it was a coincidence that this proposal was done in this particular moment?
  
  7
- It's because the majority of Americans are actually united on many issues. The chances an amendment passes with 51% is highly unlikely. So anything unconstitutional getting passed is a none issue. That's why no abortion ban has made it to amendment status. Amendments override lower laws. So a body autonomy amendment would take all abortion bans of the table even when the state senate which in this case is held by the GOP despite not having the population vote.
  
  3
- It's because the right want to make sure the people can't go and do something like enshrine fundamental rights like reproductive freedom. Safe from their meddling
  
  2
- Amending the constitution is how states pass laws. This ain’t like the US constitution. You’d have to not know shit about shit to not know that.
  
  2
- Isn't conservative at least partially about maintaining the status quo? I'd say making it harder to change government is pretty conservative.
  
  0

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