Abortion foes take aim at ballot initiatives in next phase of post-Dobbs political fights | Abortion

After a series of recent ballot-box victories for abortion-rights groups, opponents of the method are redoubling their efforts — including, in some areas, pushing to make it more difficult to use. citizen-approved ballot measures to ensure access to abortion.

An anti-abortion coalition in Ohio, for example, recently released a $5 million ad buy targeting an effort to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution through a ballot initiative — as organizers of the initiative won approval to collect signatures to ask voters in November. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Ohio and other states are weighing bills that would make it harder to pass citizen-initiated changes to state constitutions.

The US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year left abortion laws up to the states, and abortion rights groups quickly scored the win on ballot measures in six of them – including in the battleground state of Michigan, where voters protect access to abortion, and in Republican strongholds of KansasKentucky and Montana, where voters defeated efforts to restrict abortions.

“What we saw in last year’s midterms was a wake-up call,” said Kelsey Pritchard, director of state public affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. He said helping local groups defeat abortion-related ballot measures is one of the top three priorities for the group’s state affairs team.

Groups on both sides of the abortion divide have poured heavily into an upcoming state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin that has seen record the expenditure and offer a basic test of the potential of the abortion issue to voters in a battleground state. Whether a conservative or liberal candidate wins a swing seat Tuesday on the seven-member high court there could determine the fate of abortion rights in the state. A Wisconsin law, enacted in 1849, that bans nearly all abortions is being challenged in court and is likely to reach the state Supreme Court.

More fights over abortion ballot initiatives are moving to life across the country. In addition to Ohio — where a state law banning abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy was struck down by a judge — abortion rights advocates have begun pushing ballot measures in South Dakota and Missouri. Most abortions are now illegal in those two states.

And groups in at least six more states are considering citizen initiatives as a way to guarantee or expand access to abortions, said Marsha Donat, director of capacity building at The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which helps progressive groups advance ballot measures.

Battleground Ohio

Ohio, however, looms as the next big abortion battleground in calendar 2023 – with battles already taking place in the courts, state legislatures and on the airwaves.

The state’s “fetal heartbeat” law, which bans multiple abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy, took effect when the US Supreme Court struck down Roe in its June ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. But the law was put on hold by a judge in Cincinnati in a case expected to make its way to the state’s high court.

Abortion rights supporters recently won approval to begin collecting signatures to place a measure on the November ballot that would guarantee Ohioans access to abortion. If approved by voters, state officials cannot ban abortions until the fetus’s viability is over, the point at which doctors say the fetus can survive outside the womb.

The initiative states that “each individual has the right to make and exercise his or her own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions” on contraception, fertility treatment, continuation of one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion.

It would also prevent the state from interfering with the “voluntary exercise of this right” by an individual or by a “person or entity assisting an individual exercising this right.”

A conservative group called Protect Women Ohio was immediately launched an ad campaign – putting $4 million into air and $1 million into digital advertising – to pass the amendment as one that would strip parents of their authority to prevent a child from having an abortion or undergoing sex-reassignment surgery, even though the proposed constitutional amendment does not mention transgender care.

Officials with Protect Women Ohio argue that the initiative’s language is broad enough to be interpreted as extending to sex-reassignment surgery, an assertion initiative proponents say is false.

In the campaign aimed at defeating the amendment, “we’re going to make sure they have to own every last word of this radical initiative,” said Aaron Baer, ​​the president of the Center for Christian Virtue and a Protect board member. Women Ohio, on CNN. “They chose this language for a reason, and we’re not going to let them down.”

Lauren Blauvelt — who chairs Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, the group promoting the initiative — said the ad was “absolutely false” and called it an “unfortunate talking point from the other side.”

“Our amendment … creates the fundamental right that an individual can make their own reproductive health care decisions” and does not interfere with other subjects, he said.

But the ad campaign highlights an effort to link abortion to the transgender and parental rights issues that currently animate conservative activists.

Susan B. Anthony’s Pritchard said she believes her side can win on the issue of limiting abortion but “we also believe we’re broadening our coalition and expanding awareness of what these things really do when highlighted We take the issue of parental rights very seriously. ”

Supporters of the initiative need to collect more than 413,000 signatures from Ohioans by July 5 to qualify for the November ballot. Under current Ohio law, amendments to the state constitution can be approved by ballot initiative by a simple majority of voters.

A introduced the bill by Rep. State Republican Brian Stewart would raise that threshold to 60% and mandate that the signatures needed to place an amendment on the ballot come from all 88 counties in the state, rather than 44, as is currently required. .

Ohio state Senate President Matt Huffman supports raising the threshold and also supports holding a special election in August to change the ballot initiative rules. If successful, the higher threshold would go into effect before the November election when voters could consider adding abortion rights to the state constitution.

Neither Huffman nor Stewart responded to interview requests from CNN.

Ohio lawmakers recently voted to end special elections in August, citing their cost and low turnout. But Huffman recently told reporters in Ohio that a special election — with a potential price tag of $20 million — would be worth the cost if it helped torpedo the abortion initiative.

“If we save 30,000 lives as a result of spending $20 million, I think that’s a good thing,” he said, according to Cleveland.com.

Changes to initiative rules

The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center is tracking 109 measures in 35 states that could affect the initiatives that go to voters in 2024. Some would raise the threshold for an initiative to pass. Others will raise the minimum number of signatures – or require that they come from a wider geographic area – before an initiative can qualify for the ballot in the first place, Donat said.

Many of the bills aimed at making it harder to pass ballot initiatives do not specifically target abortion issues. But they come as progressive groups increasingly turn to the initiative process as a way to bypass Republican-controlled legislatures and table a host of issues — from legalizing marijuana to expanding eligibility. on Medicaid and raising the minimum wage – directly to the voters.

“The attacks, by state legislatures, on the ballot measure process have been pretty consistent and pretty aggressive for the last few (election) cycles,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project. who helped pass progressive measures in red states.

Hall said the abortion issue, while not the sole focus of current efforts to block ballot initiatives, has added “more fuel to the burning fire.”

In Missouri, a state law banning most abortions — including cases of rape and incest — took effect last year after Roe was overturned. A group called Missourians for Constitutional Freedom filed language of the petition which proposes adding abortion protections to the state constitution through a ballot initiative. In recent cycles, Missouri voters have expanded Medicaid eligibility and legalized recreational marijuana use through such initiatives.

This year, the state’s Republican-controlled legislature is weighing in, making it harder for initiatives to succeed. In February, the state House voted to raise the bar for amending the state constitution from a simple majority to 60%. Voters would have to approve the higher threshold.

“I believe the Missouri Constitution is a living document but not an ever-expanding document,” said Republican state Rep. Mike Henderson, the bill’s sponsor, during debate on the House floor. “And so far, it’s been an ever-expanding document.”

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/01/politics/abortion-opponents-ballot-initiatives-ohio/index.html