Ohio Issue 1 passes, protecting abortion rights in the Republican state (2024)

Network exit polls suggest that the passage of the amendment was driven by strong turnout among Democratic-leaning groups and swing groups, with women emphatically favoring the measure while men backed it by a smaller margin. Black and Latino voters heavily endorsed the amendment, and White voters — the majority of the electorate — supported it more narrowly.

While most Democrats and independents supported the measure and most Republicans were opposed, about 1 in 5 GOP voters and Trump supporters backed it, the exit poll found. A clear majority of Ohio voters said they felt “dissatisfied” or “angry” about the landmark Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022, as opposed to feeling “satisfied” or “enthusiastic.”

Abortion is currently legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy in Ohio, but proponents pushed a massive signature drive to get an amendment on November’s ballot after a ban on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy went into effect last year, causing patients to flee to other states for treatment. The six-week ban was being litigated in court, but loomed large in the minds of many voters.

The amendment battle garnered intense national interest as a potential bellwether issue for the 2024 election, with millions of dollars from deep-pocketed billionaires and national special interest groups flowing into the state. Each side has spent about $20 million, election records show.

“Our message was that private medical decisions should be left for people to make with their families and politicians should not be a part of those decisions,” said Lauren Beene, executive director of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights and a leader of Protect Choice Ohio, the grass-roots organization that spearheaded the drive to get the issue on the fall ballot.

Lauren Blauvelt, campaign co-chair of Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement that “Ohioans rejected disinformation and fear and voted instead to ensure that every Ohioan has access to the reproductive health care they need here in our state.”

Aaron Baer, President of Ohio’s Center for Christian Virtue, which led the fight against the state amendment, vowed that “the fight will continue” despite the defeat on Tuesday.

“Our hearts are broken tonight, not because we lost, but because Ohio women and families will bear the brunt,” he said.

Ohio is the seventh state to protect abortion access since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision invalidated Roe v. Wade’s federal abortion standard. Before Ohio, voters in other red states such as Kansas and Kentucky were among those siding with abortion access.

The Ohio amendment, known on the ballot as Issue 1, makes it a constitutional right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” including on abortion, contraception, fertility treatment and miscarriage care. It allows the state to restrict abortion after fetal viability, except when “necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”

Opponents of Ohio’s measure had argued that the language in the amendment was too vague and “too extreme” for the state. They alleged that the amendment could hinder parents’ rights to oversee their children’s lives and that the definition of “health” could be misused by doctors to apply to nonmedical circ*mstances. Legal experts rejected both of those claims.

On Tuesday night, opponents of the amendment gathered in a vacant downtown Columbus office building to watch returns come in, snacking on appetizers and sodas. The evening began optimistically with prayer and cheer but the mood quickly soured, with many heading early for the exits.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) said in an interview that the passage of the amendment he opposed would prompt reflection and recalibration.

Asked where Ohio’s right-to-life movement goes after the defeat at the ballot box, Yost said, “It’s a great question. There is no blueprint; this is an existential fight.”

But the defeat is likely to prompt more soul searching from antiabortion movements, even as some abortion opponents are arguing that the movement coalesce around a push for a 15-week federal abortion ban. Others are arguing that they need to be more pragmatic about supporting exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother, and do a better job of explaining government programs backed by the GOP that support mothers and babies.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine was an outspoken opponent of the measure, appearing in a recent ad with his wife, Fran, urging a “no” vote and warning that the proposal was “not right for Ohio.” His spokesman, Dan Tierney, said that the governor would not be making a statement after the vote Tuesday night.

On Tuesday, college students, retirees and workers from a sprawling military community at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base turned out to vote at a polling station on the Wright State University campus outside Dayton. The complexity of the issue was evident there, with voters for and against not necessarily breaking down along party lines.

Ethel Burns, 70, who is Black and a retired Air Force sergeant, said she voted for the amendment.

“The government does not need to be in my body,” Burns said, noting that Prohibition didn’t stop drinking and that she feels a ban on abortions wouldn’t stop abortions.

“This is an issue that is between a woman and her God,” Burns said.

Looking ahead to 2024, however, Burns said she was rethinking her support for President Biden after switching her allegiance to Biden and the Democrats in 2020 following her vote for Trump in 2016. She cited the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza, which she believes is alienating Muslims and voters of color.

“I am disillusioned,” Burns said. “I grew up Democrat, but when I started serving in the military, Republicans were pro-military. Now that I’m a senior citizen, I just want somebody who will work for the good of the people.”

In recent weeks, DeWine had tried to appeal to centrist voters by suggesting that the Ohio legislature should revisit the wording of the state’s six-week ban if the abortion amendment failed, adding exceptions in cases of rape or incest. But there was no guarantee Ohio’s Republican supermajority in the state legislature would agree with him, critics said.

Robert Benge, 50, a construction worker in Beavercreek, near Dayton, said Tuesday he was voting against the amendment, citing a falsehood about its impact on transgender youths that has been spread by the opposition and debunked by Yost, the state’s conservative attorney general.

“Kids should not be allowed to have gender-reassignment surgery without their parents’ permission,” said Benge, a Republican.

In the spring, as abortion rights supporters gathered steam in their effort to collect signatures to put abortion protection on the fall ballot, the Republican supermajority in the state legislature voted to hold an August special election that would have made it harder to pass constitutional amendments, raising the threshold of passage from a simple majority to 60 percent.

The issue — aimed squarely at abortion supporters — was defeated by a decisive margin, with voters even in counties that supported Trump rejecting the proposal, a precursor to Tuesday’s result.

The GOP’s attempt at gamesmanship in August was noted by Democratic voters Tuesday.

“We need to get these Republican fools under control,” said Tim Powell, 71, a retired resident of Beavercreek. Powell said he voted for the abortion amendment because he wants to keep abortion legal and accessible in Ohio.

At the Wright State University polling location, voters ranged from those who said their Christian beliefs prevented them from supporting the procedure to others who said their support of a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions was unwavering.

Ron Sager, 79, a retired Air Force veteran, and his wife, Patricia Sager, 76, cast their votes against the amendment.

“We do not believe in abortion. We are Christians,” Ron Sager said. Patricia Sager said that abortion is a very complicated topic but that “we never agree with killing a baby.”

Kaylee Spencer, 21, of Fairborn, who works at a nearby movie theater, said she voted for the amendment.

“I would like to keep all of my rights and make sure everyone else has them too,” Spencer said. She said that she was less passionate about Issue 2, which would legalize recreational use of marijuana in Ohio, but that she also voted yes on that.

Gowen reported from St. Petersburg, Fla. Emily Guskin and Scott Clement in Washington contributed to this report.