Confusion Clouds Ohio s Tuesday Abortion Test | RealClearPolitics
Ohio Republicans and pro-life groups are intensifying their efforts to oppose a ballot measure seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution in the final crucial days. Voters will determine its fate Tuesday in the most-watched election in the country.
Approval of the constitutional amendment, titled Issue 1, would be a broad win for the pro-choice movement and would undoubtedly spur similar efforts in other battleground states. Changing the state constitution also would be nearly impossible for Republicans in the state legislature to overturn or unwind.
With the stakes so high for both sides, voters are being inundated with a flood of legalistic and confusing messaging. Anti-abortion forces and those backing abortion rights are accusing each other of misinformation campaigns and extremism. Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife, Fran, also took the unusual step of wading into the issue with their own ad opposing the constitutional amendment.
Some of the confusion was inevitable because an entirely separate ballot measure with the same name failed to pass just three months ago. It was offered by abortion opponents who were trying to change state law to make it more difficult to alter the state constitution. But that effort failed, emboldening pro-choice groups while putting abortion opponents on edge and not just in Ohio, where voters historically have supported abortion access, but with significant restrictions.
Ohio is a strange state. It should probably be broken up into a bunch of little statelets and the Feds could keep busy keeping them from going to war with each other.