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Voters in Ohio reject GOP-backed proposal that would have made it tougher to protect abortion rights (apnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Ohio voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a Republican-backed measure that would have made it more difficult to change the state’s constitution, setting up a fall campaign that will become the nation’s latest referendum on abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nationwide protections last year.

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[–] [email protected] 119 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Abortion is the big ticket item and the headline isn't wrong but it's also more than that- it would've basically given the Ohio Republican Party power for decades. They already illegally gerrymander, etc. and this would've made them even more unaccountable.

Current rules- 44 counties to get signatures, 10 day cure period to gather more if you fall short, 50+% to pass.
Proposed rules- 5% from ALL 88 counties, no cure period, 60% to pass.

Essentially, grassroots initiatives already have a high hurdle and this would've made them effectively impossible. Only big moneyed interests could ever get anything on the ballot again.

Very, very happy it failed.

[–] [email protected] 85 points 1 year ago (3 children)

From my city's Democrat group:

What landmark changes to Ohio law would have FAILED under Issue 1?

In just the 21st century:

2000: Clean Ohio Fund; state can sell enviro bonds (57% in favor...would have FAILED)
2005: Third Frontier program to modernize Ohio's economy (54% in favor...would have FAILED)
2006: Increasing minimum wage (57% in favor...would have FAILED)
2009: Legalizing gambling at casinos in Cbus, CLE, Cincy, Toledo (53% in favor...would have FAILED)
2015: Barring businesses from using amendment process to form monopolies (51% in favor...would have FAILED)

Let's go further back now:

1923: Remove the phrase “white male” from parts of the constitution describing VOTER ELIGIBILITY (56% in favor...would have FAILED)
1933: Giving counties authority to create city charters with "home rule" (53% in favor...would have failed)
1933: Set the 10-mill property tax limit that local governments can impose without getting approval from voters (59.7% in favor...would have FAILED)
1949: Ending the practice of straight-ticket voting; voters must mark their candidates, not just check off a party (57% in favor...would have failed)
1953: Creation of Ohio state school board, which advises local school districts on education policy (57% in favor...would have failed)
1953: Allowing People of Color to serve in the Ohio National Guard (57% in favor...would have failed)
1961: Allowing Women to serve in Ohio National Guard (50.1% in favor...would have failed)
1975: Allowing charitable orgs to run bingo games, a form of gambling (54% in favor...would have failed)
1978: Prison labor reform (54% in favor...would have failed)
1982: Enabled lower-interest, first-time home-buyer programs that continue today (57% in favor...would have failed)
1990: Tax credits and other steps to help finance housing projects (53% in favor...would have failed)

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

This is some great perspective on its effect, thank you.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So basically everything good in the last century wouldve failed and this law would’ve ensured Ohio would slide into the same useless bucket as Alabama on the national scale

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

That’s what they’re trying now. Ohio is a major state, with multiple major cities, and a long history as a swing state due to being roughly even rural/urban. Like Columbus is really queer, Cleveland is just as Great Lakes as Toronto, Detroit, and Chicago, and we’ve also got Appalachia and a lot of what you probably can’t tell isn’t rural Indiana. Add in that Columbus is a major hub for business and it’s very valuable and perceived as takable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Man looking at some of these with the years next to them and Ohio used to be kinda based

And yeah there are other things that may desperately need to be changed about our constitution that wouldn’t clear the 60% mark even beyond abortion. Namely our constitution currently prohibits recognition of gay marriage, which while no longer an issue in the Obergefell era, may become relevant again depending on who bribes the Supreme Court.

They’re trying to force the big Cs to live at the whims of rural Ohioans despite how close the urban/rural population is

[–] splix 56 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ohio is about to get real cool. The abortion vote is going to enshrine it in the Ohio consitution, but along side it, legal marijuana is also on the same ballot.

Go register and go vote!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If Ohio gets legal abortion and legal marijuana, I will officially declare that it lose it's "most mediocre state" title

[–] splix 2 points 1 year ago

This. Is. Wendy’s!

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Issue 1 was bad and I'm glad to see that the voters rejected it. That they did highlights the growing disconnect from Republican politicians and Republican voters on key issues like Abortion and Marijuana.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's really spooky how the GOP doesn't seem to really care about popular opinion anymore.

That doesn't end anywhere good.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ohio GOP hasn't cared about the rule of law for as long as I can remember. More famously, they were ordered to draw fair voting maps multiple times running into 2016, and kept submitting maps that didn't even come close to passing muster, including submitting the exact same map twice AND submitting the current voting map.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago

This goes beyond not caring about the rule of law - they don't even care about what voters want! In a democracy that has consequences.

They seem to think that they're beyond democratic accountability entirely and can ignore popular opinion and ignore voter support.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Who'da thunk that making women have their rapists' babies would be a nationally unpopular proposition? One could never have foreseen such a thing.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not just women, children too. Part of how this was sold was as a “parent’s rights” thing to enable preventing minors from having abortions without parental consent.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

'If I didn't want my daughter to have a baby I wouldn't have impregnated her in the first place.'

I think that if you're in a position to make policy and your opponents are writing jokes like the one above, then surely you should be thinking about what you're doing... except I cannot feature that they're really that stupid. One thing I have heard recently is the idea that segregationists are segregating themselves by trying to make red states impossibly toxic to live in for anyone from the outgroups.

[–] eestileib 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's not a theory, DeSantis outright says it.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh fuck, does he? Has he started talking about secession yet?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm hoping for an eventual situation like in the Metalocalypse episode "Dethgov"

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

That’s true, but also it’s important to remember that part of that goal is to brutally suppress certain out groups. Yes they want trans people to flee, so their child doesn’t have a chance of learning that transitioning is a life path open to them. They want gay people who can’t pretend to be straight gone so every bisexual can be pressured into a hetero relationship. And when those who can leave are gone the women will be forced into submission, sometimes as child brides (multiple Republican states including West Virginia have rejected laws to ban child marriage with parental consent). The trans and gay people left will be criminals forced into sex work (conservative politicians and demagogues utilizing queer sex work isn’t just an old joke, it’s a lot of stories we tell each other). And the people of color and poor white people will be pushed into labor at young ages with low wages.

Beyond the social stuff, Ohio isn’t right to work. Unions can require membership as a condition of employment here. That right is always at risk and once Democrats are driven away it’ll be gone quite quickly.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago

Fuck the GOP and fuck anyone who supports that trash.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Every time something doesn’t go their way, they change the rules.

This quote from the resident is spot on!

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago

Vote this coming election and don't let anyone tell you your vote doesn't matter!

If it didn't, the Republicans wouldn't be trying bullshit like this!

#VOTE EVERY ELECTION!

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

Because fuck you, GOP. That's why.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Always good for people when the GOP/Nazi party loses.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Also when they lose, but potato/tomato.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Way to go Ohio!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Keep up this energy!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I only wish it was no by 60% then it would be denied by their own standards.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

By their standards, it only needed to be no by 40%

[+] [email protected] -21 points 1 year ago (10 children)

This isn't just about abortion, I don't get why all the headlines are focusing on that
It's really hard to see why this is a partisan issue, "let's make it hard to change the constitution" doesn't really sound like an inherently right-wing position.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Making it harder to change the constitution is an inherently conservative position. That's basically what conservative means – it's a desire to keep things mostly how they are (or how they used to be, in the supposed "good old days").

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

The GOP regularly violates their own rules and norms whenever it suits them. Small government? Personal freedom?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because it was pushed through as an august election not long after august elections were banned (due to high cost and low turnout), but almost immediately after legalizing abortion wound up on the November ballot. Sure it’s about more than abortion, but it’s also very much about abortion, otherwise it would’ve waited until November.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Hey! So I had just learned about the historically low turnout of August elections, but what is the high cost about?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Elections themselves are expensive affairs. Not just for the sides, but also for the host government. Worth it of course, but it’s a huge strain including shipping and hosting the ballots, machines, etc to every location. Add in that poll workers are paid. And it uses a ton of space. All for one yes or no question to be asked 3 months before all this was going to happen anyways. Elections happen on their own every year, that’s the default. And there’s usually one in the spring too. It’s one thing if it actually cannot wait, like if we were asking for a referendum on an ecological catastrophe or a Supreme Court shenanigan that opened up a stupid outdated law to happening with serious effect. But this, this absolutely was not worth the cost and could have waited 3 months unless your sole concern is to make abortion or marijuana harder to access in this state even if the majority of Ohioans want them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Cool, thank you!

[–] CaptDust 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The high cost comes from having to mobilize polling locations, poll workers, logistics for voting infrastructure, ya know, all the stuff that goes into making an election happen.

Special elections like this need to have all the same setup as a general election, but since it's focused around one (or a handful) of issues, AND the general election still has to take place in November, it's pretty wasteful. I've seen the estimates are around $20-30 million to make a special election happen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Cool, makes perfect sense. Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

The reason people focus on the abortion angle is because there is a vote to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution in November. This bill would apply to that vote. It would also make it harder to try again and harder to have grassroots initiatives in general.

I wonder why changing the constitution is suddenly an issue the Ohio GOP wants to vote on…

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You are thinking of the Old GOP. New GOP doesn't vote on conservative values. They're just an underfed truffle pig scrounging in the dirt for any crumbs that will increase their power. It's pathetic. Theyll eat their own leg if they get hungry enough.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Headlines are focusing on abortion because this proposal was very clearly meant to make it substantially harder for the later vote on an amendment to protect abortion rights to succeed. The GOP knows that, when put to a direct vote, at least 50% will vote for legal abortion. But in a state like Ohio, 60% just might be a realistic ceiling.

I mean, do you really think it was a coincidence that this proposal was done in this particular moment?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

It's because the majority of Americans are actually united on many issues. The chances an amendment passes with 51% is highly unlikely. So anything unconstitutional getting passed is a none issue. That's why no abortion ban has made it to amendment status. Amendments override lower laws. So a body autonomy amendment would take all abortion bans of the table even when the state senate which in this case is held by the GOP despite not having the population vote.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It's because the right want to make sure the people can't go and do something like enshrine fundamental rights like reproductive freedom. Safe from their meddling

[–] ImFresh3x 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Amending the constitution is how states pass laws. This isn’t like the US constitution.

That and this issue was brought up by conservatives in proactive response to an abortion vote in November.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Isn't conservative at least partially about maintaining the status quo? I'd say making it harder to change government is pretty conservative.