COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio voters will decide in November if they have a constitutional right to have an abortion.
Sec. of State Frank LaRose announced Tuesday that the proposal to amend the Ohio Constitution to legalize and protect reproductive healthcare choices, including abortion, has enough valid signatures to make the ballot.
"When they vote in November on this issue, they're voting for themselves: they're voting for their own rights, the rights of their friends, their family members, their neighbors to have reproductive freedom, the ability to access reproductive health care without political interference," said Gabriel Mann, spokesperson for Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights.
The direct language of the amendment states, “every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion.”
It adds that the state can’t prohibit, interfere or penalize anyone for exercising this right.
Click here to read the initiative petition.
Now, language needs to head to the Ohio Ballot Board to be approved for the election. It will likely look similar.
Abortion rights groups submitted more than 700,000 petition signatures supporting reproductive freedom in the state, which they gathered in all 88 Ohio counties over the course of 12 weeks. This was about 300,000 more than was necessary to be on the ballot.
Of the signatures they collected, 495,938 were valid, more than the 413,487 that were required.
Cuyahoga County had the largest amount of signatures, according to Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Deputy Director Tony Perlatti.
The campaign had submitted about 118,000 signatures, with 77,416 valid – which is a 65.6% validity rate. Ballot signatures are thrown away for two main reasons: the signatures belong to people who are not registered to vote or the signatories are registered but not at the address to which they signed the petition.
Anti-abortion advocates suspected that this day was coming, so they have been focusing their effort on ad campaigns against the November ballot question.
"We are prepared as the Catholic Conference of Ohio to reach out to Catholics across the state and just let them know of this egregious amendment and to prepare to defend life here in Ohio," Michelle Duffey with the Catholic Conference of Ohio said.
RELATED: Advocates on each side get ready for possible vote to legalize abortion in Ohio
News 5 has debunked the often-repeated claim that the abortion amendment would "permit minors to undergo sex change operations without their parents' knowledge or consent."
Now that the amendment has officially made the ballot, advocates on each side are focused on the special election. On August 8, Ohioans will decide on Issue 1, which would raise the threshold for a constitutional amendment to pass from a simple majority, or 50% plus one to 60%.
How Issue 1 applies to abortion vote
Issue 1 is directly related to the abortion vote.
RELATED: Ohio Sec. of State LaRose admits move to make constitution harder to amend is ‘100% about… abortion’
After months of denial, LaRose admitted that the proposal to make the constitution harder to amend is "100%" due to efforts to legalize abortion. After realizing that reproductive rights groups were planning a constitutional amendment on abortion, LaRose and many GOP lawmakers snuck in an August election, despite banning them a few months prior.
Raising the threshold for a constitutional amendment needs to pass to 60% would make it more difficult to pass.
Each state that has put up a vote on abortion rights has kept the healthcare treatment or procedure safe.
Percentage abortion was protected in other states:
- Kentucky — 52.3%
- Montana — 52.5%
- Michigan — 56.6%
- Kansas — 59%
- California — 66%
- Vermont — 76.7%
Abortion in Ohio
Abortion is legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy — or from the last menstrual period.
However, this has been a growing political fight for the past decade.
In 2019, Republican lawmakers passed the six-week abortion ban, which had no rape or incest exceptions.
This law was blocked by a federal judge a few months later.
When Roe fell in 2022, Ohio reinstated the six-week ban. Pro-abortion rights groups sued, and months later, a state judge indefinitely blocked the law from going into place, citing infringement of privacy.
Now, the case is set to be heard by the Ohio Supreme Court, which is GOP-led.
RELATED: One year after overturning of Roe v. Wade, future of abortion in Ohio remains uncertain
Although the abortion rights group has a successful day, the recreational marijuana enthusiasts did not. Their ballot proposal failed.
Recreational marijuana
Sec. of State Frank LaRose announced Tuesday that the proposal to legalize weed currently doesn’t have enough valid signatures to make the ballot.
Ohio voters will not get to decide in November if marijuana should be legal for recreational use, unless organizers are able to cure their petition and make up the invalid signatures submitted.
The group has ten days to make up the deficit in signatures. Their team is confident they will be able to make it.
"It looks like we came up a little short in this first phase, but now we have 10 days to find just 679 voters to sign a supplemental petition – this is going to be easy, because a majority of Ohioans support our proposal to regulate and tax adult use marijuana," said Tom Haren, spokesperson for the group "Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol." "We look forward to giving Ohio voters a chance to make their voices heard this November.”
The group submitted more than 222,000 petition signatures supporting recreational marijuana in the state, which they gathered in all 88 Ohio counties over the course of 8 weeks. This was about 100,000 more than was necessary to be on the ballot.
Of the signatures they collected, 123,367 were valid, just short of the required number. The Secretary of State's office said they only need to collect 679 additional valid signatures to be on the ballot in November.
Cuyahoga County had a large amount of signatures, according to Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Deputy Director Tony Perlatti.
In Cuyahoa County, the campaign had submitted about 30,000 signatures, with 14,073 valid – which is a 47.87% validity rate. Ballot signatures were thrown away for two main reasons: the signatures belong to people who are not registered to vote or the signatories are registered but not at the address to which they signed the petition. However, this campaign had a third reason: because of a prior attempt to get weed on the ballot, organizers were able to use signatures they got in December. But, 1,200 people signed in both Dec. and now, so Cuy. Co. BOE had to throw away the doubles.
If passed, the law would legalize and regulate recreational cannabis for adults 21 years of age and older. Individual Ohioans would also be able to grow up to six plants, but up to 12 per household.
This proposal would also impose a 10% tax at the point of sale for each transaction, which activists say would raise $350 to $400 million in new tax revenue annually.
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.
