After Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, states across the country rushed to outlaw abortion, leaving at least 25 million women of childbearing age living in states where abortion is in some way restricted. Amid that flurry of new bans, a handful of states moved to protect abortion, and this November, Ohio may become the latest state to enshrine protections for reproductive health care — including abortion — in the state constitution.
On November 7, Ohio voters will consider Issue 1, a measure to protect the right to make reproductive health care decisions, including the choice to have an abortion, access to contraception and fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and the choice to continue a pregnancy. It would also largely prohibit the state from interfering or penalizing anyone who exercises those rights (though abortion can still be limited after fetal viability). A "yes" vote on Issue 1 would enshrine rights to access abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, and miscarriage care into the Ohio Constitution, while a “no” vote would reject the constitutional amendment.
“Bans on reproductive health care have a greater detrimental personal and systemic impact on Black and brown people, queer and trans people, young people, and low-income people,” Jordyn Close, the deputy director of Ohio Women’s Alliance and Board President of Abortion Fund of Ohio, tells Teen Vogue. “Issue 1 will keep our families safer and increase access to health care.”
Abortion access is protected in 21 states and Washington, DC, and some of those protections were adopted via ballot measure. Voters in Michigan, Vermont, and California opted to codify abortion protections into their state constitution at the polls last November. Montana voters struck down an anti-abortion question, and in a move that surprised many, Kentucky voters rejected a question that would have amended the state constitution to clarify that there’s no constitutional right to abortion.
These states have demonstrated that abortion access is not necessarily a partisan issue. A poll released by the Associated Press revealed that very few Americans support total abortion bans, including those residing in states that have heavily restricted or outlawed abortion post-Roe. Ohio voters seem to echo the national picture.
Still, prior to Roe’s reversal, hundreds of medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion have been passed in the last 10 years across the country. Abortion restrictions passed in Ohio over the last 10 years have closed over half of the state's clinics, leaving 93% of Ohio’s counties without a clinic. On September 27, the Ohio Supreme Court started hearing arguments about the state's six-week trigger ban that had taken effect post-Dobbs, which has since been temporarily blocked by the courts. As anti-abortion policies continue to take effect across the country, the remaining abortion clinics and abortion funds have been left to pick up the pieces to ensure that abortion seekers still receive care.
“Our clinics and abortion funds have been dealing with increasing patient needs, creating more barriers for Ohioans and people across the US coming to Ohio for their care,” Close says, adding that this is happening while the state’s six-week ban is temporarily blocked. “Ohio has already seen a large increase in abortion patients since the fall of Roe.”
In August, Ohio voters rejected a different Issue 1, a Republican-backed measure in a special election that would have made it more difficult to change the state’s constitution; it was rejected by a margin of 57% to 43%. Some said the previous Issue 1 was a move to derail the planned referendum to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.
Early voting on this November’s Issue 1 started on October 11, and as election day nears, organizations that are part of the Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights coalition (like Ohio Women’s Alliance) are rallying hard in support.
“By leveraging the power of reproductive justice and cultural strategy at the intersection of voter education and community engagement,” Close says, “our 2023 campaign work intentionally centers the communities most impacted by abortion bans and will work to establish and deepen relationships with voters and community leaders of marginalized identities living in under-resourced Ohio communities.”
