Radical Ohio Abortion Amendment to Appear on November Ballot

A radical abortion amendment will be on the November ballot in Ohio, which would enshrine abortion-on-demand into the state constitution if passed.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) announced on Tuesday that the left-wing coalition, Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, submitted nearly 496,000 valid signatures, surpassing the 413,487 signatures needed to be placed in the November 7 election ballot. The coalition pushing for unfettered abortion access includes groups like the ACLU of Ohio, Planned Parenthood, and URGE, a group that has long campaigned to end parental involvement laws. 

“Every person deserves respect, dignity, and the right to make reproductive health care decisions, including those related to their own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion free from government interference,” Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights Executive Committee members Lauren Blauvelt and Dr. Lauren Beene said in a statement.

“Now that the petition drive is complete, we’re eager to continue the campaign to enshrine those rights in Ohio’s Constitution and ensure that Ohioans will never again be subject to draconian reproductive health care policies imposed by extremists.”

An August 8 special election could determine the likelihood of the abortion amendment’s passage. In August, Ohioans will have the opportunity to vote on Issue 1, an amendment that would raise the threshold to pass future amendments to the state constitution from 50 percent to 60 percent.

Proponents of Issue 1 say the amendment will protect Ohio’s constitution for out-of-state special interest groups that “too often circumvent the legislature and buy their way into the constitution,” like the local affiliates of national pro-abortion groups pushing the abortion-on-demand amendment.

State Rep. Brian Stewart (R), who was instrumental in getting the threshold question on the ballot in August, told Breitbart News in April that there is plenty of precedent for going beyond simple majority votes in states that allow outside groups to propose constitutional amendments.

“Florida requires 60 percent for all constitutional amendments. Colorado — a blue state — requires 55 percent for amendments. New Hampshire requires 66 percent for amendments. Arizona requires 60 percent for amendments that would increase taxes,” Stewart said. “So there’s a lot of precedent for moving in this direction, and we think it’s time to finally get it done.” 

Opponents of Issue 1, including the left-wing coalition members, view the amendment as an effort to stop their abortion-on-demand agenda in the state. Even so, many coalition members’ own constitutions require supermajorities to amend their bylaws.

The language of the abortion ballot initiative is extremely broad and makes no differentiation between minors and adults, instead opting to use the term “individual.”

The abortion ballot measure states that “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.”

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Under the amendment, the state would also not be allowed to:

…directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against either an individual’s voluntary exercise of this right or a person or entity that assists an individual exercising this right, unless the state demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means to advance the individuals health in accordance with widely accepted and evidence-based standards of care.

The ACLU of Ohio, a coalition member, is responsible for crafting the broad language of the proposed abortion amendment, along with other groups like Planned Parenthood. Left-wing fact-checkers have quickly asserted that the amendment would not impact parental rights. But when local media questioned the ACLU of Ohio as to if the language of the measure would undo parental consent and notification laws, the organization vaguely indicated that those laws would not stand if the amendment passes.

“When you pass a constitutional amendment, it doesn’t just automatically erase everything and start over. But it would mean that laws that conflict with it cannot be enforced, should not be enforced,” said Jessie Hill, an attorney for the ACLU of Ohio.

RELATED: Medical Organizations Promote Abortion Above the Health of Women

Critics of the ballot measure — constitutional scholars Carrie Campbell Severino, President of the Judicial Crisis Network, and Frank J. Scaturro, a former special counsel to the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives — have urgently warned that the amendment would decimate parental rights.

In an analysis of the proposed amendment, Severino and Scaturro wrote that the amendment is being largely and incorrectly framed as a means of adding a right to abortion in the state constitution. Instead, they argue that the proposal is:

[S]o broadly worded that it would prevent the legislature not only from requiring the consent of parents before their child pursues a particular procedure, but also from requiring mere notification of parents — well short of the power to veto their child’s decision — before the procedure takes place.

They further contend the text goes beyond abortion because of the use of the broad term “reproductive decisions.”

“By explicitly defining such decisions as ‘not limited to’ the enumerated categories, the proposal establishes its scope as sweeping,” they wrote.

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“A natural reading would extend to any medical procedure that involves the human reproductive system, including sex-change surgery,” they continued:

The language also applies to individuals without any age qualification, so the proposal makes no distinction between adults and minors. Additional language would deny parents the right to any intervention on behalf of their children that would discourage them from obtaining the procedure in question.

A group that describes itself as a pro-woman, pro-parents statewide coalition, Protect Women Ohio (PWO), has launched a multimillion-dollar statewide television and digital ad campaign against the proposed amendment in response to the left-wing campaign, warning that the measure would “outlaw basic health and safety protections for women, eliminate parental notification and consent laws that protect minor girls, and allow painful abortions up until birth in our state.” PWO also launched a $3 million campaign in support of Issue 1.

“Ohioans are waking up to the dangers of the ACLU’s anti-parent amendment, and they are terrified – and rightfully so,” PWO Press Secretary Amy Natoce said in a statement. She continued:

The extreme amendment places parental rights on the chopping block by permitting minors to undergo abortions and sex change procedures without their parents’ knowledge or consent, removes health and safety protections for women, and allows painful abortion up until birth. PWO will continue to shine a light on the ACLU’s disastrous agenda until it is defeated in November.

Currently, abortion is legal in Ohio up to 20 weeks gestation because a judge blocked a heartbeat law that would have protected unborn babies at around six weeks into pregnancy.

RELATED: Pro-Lifers Pop 1,350 Balloons in Protest — One for Every Abortion in the U.S. Every Day

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter @thekat_hamilton.