Ohio’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that an August election scheduled by Republican lawmakers that could make it difficult for abortion rights supporters can be amended to the state constitution.
The ballot measure in the August election will allow voters to decide whether or not to vote threshold of the necessary support for future state constitutional amendments to 60%. Currently, only a majority is required.
The decision it’s a blow to reproductive rights advocates, who had filed a lawsuit to overturn the election. Those advocates pointed to the fact that Ohio Republicans, just earlier this year, had done just that enacted a different law that he had scrubbed effectively most special elections in August on the state’s calendar, after officials called them too expensive and low-turnout efforts that weren’t worth it.
In their lawsuit, reproductive rights advocates questioned why the standards would have changed so quickly and so dramatically. They suggested that Republicans in the state Legislature only reversed themselves on the issue because if the threshold measure passed in August, it could prevent passage of a proposed amendment in November to enshrine the right to ‘abortion in the state constitution.
But in its 4-3 decision, the state Supreme Court’s conservative majority sided with Republican lawmakers. the court ruled that the August 8 election is entirely legal and constitutional, and lawmakers had freedom and leeway to schedule the race.
The August election will also allow voters to decide whether groups trying to put ballot measures must get signatures from voters in all 88 Ohio counties, rather than the 44 now required.
Although the measure does not explicitly mention abortion, abortion rights groups argue that its placement and timing are designed to thwart efforts to guarantee abortion rights in the state.
If the threshold measure passes in August, the amendment proposed in November to enshrine the right to abortion would need 60% of voters to approve it. If it fails in August, it would only need a majority.
Last month, Republicans moved to schedule the August election just weeks after the state’s reproductive rights groups cleared several key hurdles on their way to getting their abortion measure on the ballot. november
Some Republican supporters, including Ohio GOP Secretary of State Frank LaRose, had maintained that holding a special election in August is not worth the tens of millions of dollars in costs.
“These unnecessary off-cycle elections are not good for taxpayers, election officials or the civic health of our state. It’s time for them to go,” LaRose, who has said he is likely to run for the U.S. Senate in 2024. witnessed during the legislative hearings at the end of last year.
But earlier this month, News 5 Clevelanda local Ohio TV station, uncovered a clip of LaRose saying in May that efforts to raise the threshold were “100 percent to keep a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution.”
After that report, LaRose spokesman Rob Nichols defended his revocation, telling News5 Cleveland and other media that the secretary of state had “consistently said that we have to raise the standard to amend our constitution state, whether it’s health care, the minimum wage, casinos, or anything else. another special interest agenda.”
Raising the threshold for passage of any future constitutional amendment would mark a major change in the state’s procedures: The simple majority required to pass a proposed constitutional amendment has been in place in Ohio since 1912.
Meanwhile, November’s proposed abortion amendment is designed to counter Ohio’s “heartbeat bill,” which snapped into place immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.
This law prohibits abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for the health of the pregnant woman and in cases of ectopic pregnancy. this stays temporarily locked by a state judge.
