COLUMBUS, Ohio — On Wednesday morning, 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 delivered the petitions to the office of the Ohio Secretary of State at 10 a.m. and held a news conference at 11 a.m. Watch a livestream of the conference here.
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.
“This is a historic day for Ohio and for reproductive freedom. We cannot thank our volunteers enough for this herculean grassroots effort to ensure patients and doctors, not government extremists, are in control of making private medical decisions. Fortunately, the Ohio Constitution gives us the ability to take this popular issue directly to the people,” said Lauren Blauvelt and Kellie Copeland of Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom. “Today, we take a huge step forward in the fight for abortion access and reproductive freedom for all, to ensure that Ohioans and their families can make their own health care decisions without government interference.”
BREAKING: The first truck of signed abortion petitions is here.
— Morgan Trau (@MorganTrau) July 5, 2023
Pro-abortion rights advocates have dropped off 100,000s of petitions to the Ohio Sec. of State to put the question of abortion legality on the Nov. ballot.@WEWS @WCPO @OhioCapJournal pic.twitter.com/doR1LPjFDg
Protect Women Ohio, a coalition of anti-abortion groups and leaders, released this statement in response to the filing of the petitions:
“The ACLU’s extreme anti-parent amendment is so unpopular that it couldn’t even rely on grassroots support to collect signatures. The ACLU paid out-of-state signature collectors to lie to Ohioans about its dangerous amendment that will strip parents of their rights, permit minors to undergo sex change operations without their parents’ knowledge or consent, and allow painful abortion on demand through all nine months. The ACLU’s attempts to hijack Ohio’s constitution to further its own radical agenda would be pathetic if they weren’t so dangerous.”
The often-repeated claim that the abortion amendment would "permit minors to undergo sex change operations without their parents' knowledge or consent" has been debunked.
