Anti-abortion group blames Ohio GOP for amendment loss: ‘Not a test of pro-life’
Gabrielle M. Etzel
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Anti-abortion advocacy group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said that the contentious vote in Ohio on whether or not to increase the difficulty of amending the state constitution was not a defeat for the anti-abortion movement, blaming the Ohio Republican Party for failing on mobilization efforts.
“There should be no pro-life defeat message [from Ohio],” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA, said in a press call on Tuesday. “That was not a test of pro-life [in Ohio]. … This was a failure on the part of the GOP.”
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Last week, Ohioans rejected Issue 1, a ballot measure that would have increased the threshold to amend the state constitution via referendum to a 60% majority. The preservation of the simple majority status quo will have implications for the abortion protection amendment on the ballot in November that would enshrine abortion rights.
Dannenfelser said that the defeat in the August special election is the fault of Ohio Republicans and business community who did not sufficiently rally voters on the other implications of toughening the rules for constitutional amendments, such as threats to gun rights or increasing taxation limits.
Billy Valentine, SBA vice president for political affairs, said in the press conference that the pro-Issue 1 side “got crushed” in the early voting due to a lack of funding from the Ohio Republican Party in the lead-up to the election.
Valentine said that the anti-Issue 1 votes led the early voting, which began on July 11, and that the pro-Issue 1 votes “narrowly carried” Election Day turnout but not enough to turn the tide of the election.
“The Ohio GOP did not do its job ahead of early voting,” Valentine said.
Led by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, the anti-Issue 1 sentiment was a very “broad, nonpartisan, populist” message that appealed to a wide swath of voters, including Trump supporters, Valentine said.
Valentine also said part of the reason the pro-Issue 1 side lost 15 counties in northeastern Ohio that voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020 was due to successful union mobilization in a region dominated by blue-collar industry.
When asked about the degree of national-level leadership from the pro-abortion movement in Ohio, Valentine said that the November abortion amendment is “anything but a grassroots effort” from pro-abortion groups.
Abortion rights groups are advancing abortion amendments in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, and North Dakota for the 2024 election cycle.
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Valentine said that in response to abortion rights activism, the “answer is national protections,” with a federal limit on abortion as the “only hope for unborn children” in states such as California, New York, and Illinois with no gestational limits on abortion.
In Ohio, “we’ll fight on and carry the fight into November,” he said.