Republicans Battle To Keep Abortion Off State Ballots

The New York Times reports:

Voters pushed back decisively after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, approving ballot measures that established or upheld abortion rights in all six states where they appeared. Now, with abortion rights groups pushing for similar citizen-led ballot initiatives in at least six other states, Republican-controlled legislatures and anti-abortion groups are trying to stay one step ahead by making it harder to pass the measures — or to get them on the ballot at all.

The biggest and most immediate fight is in Ohio, where a coalition of abortion rights groups is collecting signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would prohibit the state from banning abortion before a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, at about 24 weeks of pregnancy. That would essentially establish on the state level what Roe did nationwide for five decades.

Read the full article.

Photo: Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right To Life.

As this piece in @NYTimes makes clear, the fight against HJR1 / SJR2 is part of a bigger fight to defend the foundations of democracy. https://t.co/UDp3kfowkg

— Policy Matters Ohio (@PolicyMattersOH) April 23, 2023