COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two abortion-rights groups based in Ohio filed more than 700,000 signatures to put a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine abortion access in the state constitution.
The Ohio Physician for Reproductive Rights and Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom submitted the signatures for the constitutional amendment to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose Wednesday morning.
The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety amendment calls for establishing “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” with “reasonable limits.” In language similar to a constitutional amendment Michigan voters approved in the 2022 election, it would require restrictions imposed past a fetus’ viability outside the womb to be based on evidence of patient health and safety benefits.
The measure was approved by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and the Ohio Ballot Board earlier this year.
The constitutional amendment followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last June to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade that protected abortion rights, which shifted the battle over abortion to the states.
"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,” Lauren Blauvelt and Kellie Copeland of Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, a coalition member, said in a statement.
Opponents of the proposed constitutional amendment have since criticized it since its creation.
Protect Women Ohio, the opposition campaign, downplayed the huge number of signatures submitted, saying they were collected with help from paid signature-gatherers funded in part of the American Civil Liberties Union, which it described as “anti-parent.” Abortion foes contend that the Ohio amendment has the potential to trump the state's abortion-related parental consent law, though the lawyers who wrote it deny the claim.
"The ACLU’s attempts to hijack Ohio’s constitution to further its own radical agenda would be pathetic if they weren’t so dangerous,” campaign press secretary Amy Natoce said in a statement.
Ohio Right to Life’s Peter Range said in a statement:
“The ACLU wants to take away parental rights in Ohio, which would enable a minor to be pressured into an abortion or even a sex change operation. This amendment cuts parents out of life-changing decisions involving their kids’ health.
“Not only that, but this amendment would also allow painful, late-term abortion in Ohio with no protections for the preborn. The ACLU just misled hundreds of thousands of Ohioans about their intention to push unlimited abortion and sex change surgeries for minors in our state.”
LaRose’s office must validate the collected signatures by July 25.
If the petition does not have enough signatures, then the sponsoring committee is granted an additional 10 days to file a supplementary petition to get different signatures. The accuracy of the signatures would then be determined by LaRose by the 65th day before Election Day.