CINCINNATI — For months, abortion rights advocates have been canvassing Ohio, collecting signatures to bring an "abortion bill of rights" to the November ballot. On Wednesday, Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights delivered 710,131 signatures to the Secretary of State's office for processing.
State law requires groups collect roughly 410,000 to bring a constitutional amendment to a vote, and the total delivered Wednesday well eclipsed that number.
Abortion rights advocates celebrated the initiative getting one step closer to a vote of the people, but anti-abortion advocates like attorney Rachel Citak, president of Greater Cincinnati Right to Life, called the amendment radical.
"There may be some in Ohio that are looking for some kind of common sense abortion amendment," Citak said. "This isn't it."
Citak said she fears the amendment would eliminate a parent's right to know about their child's medical care and greatly limit legislators' ability to regulate abortion.
University of Cincinnati Political Science Professor David Niven said the amendment, as written here, would return Ohio law to something closer to what it was before the Supreme Court struck down Roe. V. Wade where abortions are protected up to viability and then up for regulation unless the mother's life is threatened.
The amendment reads that "abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability. But in no case may such an abortion be prohibited if in the professional judgment of the pregnant patent's treating physician it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient's life or health."
"What this would do is take us to the point where the debate is not about a six-week ban, which is on the table," Niven said.
Before voters ever get a say in abortion rights, Republican lawmakers added an August hurdle where voters will have to decide whether to make it harder to amend the state's constitution.
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Voting yes would require signatures be collected in all 88 counties, instead of 44, and raise the bar to change the constitution from a 50% vote to 60%.
State GOP Chairman Alex Traintafilou backs what lawmakers called Issue 1.
"It's important that we fix the constitution in this state," Triantafilou said.
He said the change is mainly about protecting the state constitution from change on a whim.
"Our constitution is not the place for special interests to just latch on so we're fixing the long-term problem," the chairman said. "It's not only linked to abortion. Of course, we are the party of life and we'll defend that."
Niven pushed back on the notion abortion wasn't front and center in the August vote.
"What the August vote would do is limit the power of the majority of Ohioans," Niven said, "and that plays directly into the question of whether reproductive rights would be approved."
Niven said the Secretary of State's office would now review the signatures to ensure they are valid before moving to place the initiative on the November ballot. Given the number of signatures submitted vastly outnumbering what is required by law, he said voters will likely be casting their vote for or against it in the coming election.
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