Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio announced this week the organization is working to place a state constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights on the election ballot in Ohio.
The prospective effort comes as abortion proponents’ confidence surges after Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have stipulated that the Kansas Constitution does not contain the right to terminate a pregnancy failed by a vote of 59 percent to 41 percent.
Pro-life and pro-abortion advocates have introduced a plethora of legislation in various states to codify their preferred policies after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
“We … will continue to do anything and everything that we can to protect access to abortion in Ohio, fight for access to abortion in Ohio,” Planned Parenthood Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Advocacy Lauren Blauvelt-Copelin told the media this week. “And we recognize the very real reality that this is coming to Ohio.”
Abortion supporters have not yet indicated which election would feature their ballot question. Blauvelt-Copelin indicated that their first priority is winning control of the State Supreme Court in November. Republicans currently have a four-to-three majority on the court.
Justice Sharon Kennedy (R) is currently running to succeed Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor. Planned Parenthood is backing Kennedy’s Democratic opponent Jennifer Brunner. They are also supporting Democratic Judges Marilyn Zayas and Terri Jamison against incumbent Justices Pat Fischer (R) and Pat DeWine.
Pro-lifers, meanwhile, have remained stalwart in the face of their defeat in the Sunflower State.
“The Post-Roe Generation is as FEARLESS as we are compassionate,” Students for Life of America tweeted. “We will not cease our peaceful efforts, from voter education to the distribution of pregnancy resources, until all moms and babies are safe from the predatory abortion industry.”
In their respective campaigns against Republican Governor Mike DeWine and U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance, former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley (D) and Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) have pressed their case for expanding abortion rights in Ohio and beyond.
“When asked where he stands on abortion, all Mike DeWine’s team had to say was, ‘No comment,’” Whaley recently wrote in a Twitter post. “He’s trying to hide his extremism, but we know the truth: if he’s re-elected, he’ll ban abortion in Ohio — no exceptions. We can’t let that happen.”
Her assertion that DeWine is noncommittal is imprecise in light of the governor’s longstanding opposition to abortion, about which he has been outspoken ever since serving as a U.S. senator from the mid 1990s to the mid-2000s.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Ohio Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Pro-Choice Protesters” by Becker1999. CC BY 2.0.
