Ohio voters on Tuesday voted to codify abortion into the state constitution.
The ballot language references abortion, but mostly used euphemisms, such as “reproductive medical treatment” or “reproductive freedom.”
The measure, known as Issue 1, passed with 58% of the vote. It says “an individual right to one’s own reproductive medical treatment,” includes abortion, birth control and fertility treatment. The amendment is titled “The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety.”
While it allows restrictions after fetal viability, the viability is reportedly at the discretion of the doctor, or “the point in a pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician, the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures.”
After the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision in June 2022, sending abortion back to the states, abortion activists proposed the initiative.
On Sunday, Ohio’s moderate Republican governor, Mike DeWine, told CBS News: “If you look at Issue 1—it’s a radical proposal and whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, it just goes much, much too far. It is a radical proposal and does not fit Ohio.”
The measure was designed to reverse a 2019 state law restricting most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of rape and incest or a threat to the mother’s life.
The one-time battleground state that has been leaning Republican in recent election cycles is the only state to have an abortion ballot referendum in this off-year election.
Pro-abortion groups plan to also put similar measures on the ballot in Arizona, Florida and Missouri.
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