CINCINNATI — John Legend, EGOT earner and Springfield, Ohio native, visited Cincinnati on Tuesday to hold a rally in opposition of the state's Issue 1.
Legend went door-to-door encouraging citizens to vote in the August special election, where the fate of Issue 1 will be decided. After the musician and songwriter finished canvassing, he hosted a rally at noon across the street from the Hamilton County Board of Elections office in Norwood.
Issue 1 is a proposal to make it harder to amend the Ohio Constitution; It will be on the ballot on Aug. 8. If Issue 1 passes, the threshold vote for any state constitutional amendment raises to 60%, up from a 50% plus one simple majority. This would change the way the Constitution has worked for more than 110 years.
At its heart, Issue 1 is centered around the abortion debate in Ohio, as some have rallied requests to codify the practice since the issue of abortion rights returned to the states following the repeal of Roe v. Wade.
Republican Sec. of State Frank LaRose and state Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) initially put forward the "Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment," in November 2022. They said it is "designed to help protect the Ohio Constitution from continued abuse by special interests and out-of-state activists."
Though LaRose said for months that Issue 1 was not an attempt to keep reproductive rights from being codified into the Constitution through an amendment, video obtained by WCPO's sister station WEWS from Scanner Media shows the secretary at Lincoln Day on May 22, 2023 in Seneca County saying otherwise.
"It’s 100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution," LaRose said.
The introduction of Issue 1 on a Special Election ballot scheduled for August happened after it became clear Ohioans could be able to vote to determine whether abortion should be legally protected in the state constitution in November.
On July 5, Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights delivered hundreds of boxes containing thousands of signatures required to place a proposal to amend the Ohio Constitution to legalize abortion in the state on the November ballot.
The group filed more than 700,000 petition signatures supporting reproductive freedom in the state gathered in all 88 Ohio counties over the course of 12 weeks, about 300,000 more than was necessary to be on the ballot.
Despite Ohio Republicans banning special August elections earlier in 2023, an August special election was declared, to take place on Issue 1.
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