SPRINGFIELD, Ohio: At a recent hog roast fundraiser for the Clark County Republican Party, Ohio Right to Life CEO Peter Range offered his audience a stark warning: The outcome of Ohio’s Nov. 7 vote on abortion rights will reverberate far beyond the state.
“They feel like if they can win here, they’ll take this roadmap to the rest of the country,” he said of abortion rights groups. “So our battle here is important, not only for the kids’ lives at stake and the culture of the state, but also for the rest of the nation.”
The anti-abortion movement last year suffered a string of statewide losses at the polls – including in Republican states Kansas, Montana and Kentucky – after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right to abortion. Now activists on both sides have focused on conservative Ohio as a critical testing ground of their messaging, strategy and mobilization ahead of 2024’s elections.
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Already, abortion-related ballot initiatives for 2024 are in various stages of advancement in close to a dozen states, including crucial presidential swing states such as Arizona and Florida.
In addition to the Ohio referendum, next week’s legislative elections in Virginia are also centered on abortion, after Republicans have vowed to push through a 15-week limit if they win a majority in the statehouse.
The Ohio ballot question, known as Issue 1, asks voters if abortion rights should be enshrined in the state constitution, a move that would render moot a six-week limit signed into law by Republican Governor Mike DeWine. That law is on hold pending litigation at the conservative state Supreme Court.
Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, the coalition supporting the amendment, has raised almost $40 million since February, compared with just under $27 million for Protect Women Ohio, the coalition opposing the referendum, according to campaign filings last week.
The flow of money – mostly from out of state – has fueled a massive investment in television ads. More than $34 million had been committed as of last week, according to the tracking firm AdImpact.
But the battle is also unfolding door-by-door across Ohio, from urban centers such as Cleveland to the state’s rural corners.
On a recent weekday afternoon, members of the Ohio Women’s Alliance, a Black-led reproductive justice organization that focuses on people of color, visited a neighborhood in northeastern Columbus urging voters to support the initiative.
Organizers of the “no” campaign say there are crucial differences between the upcoming Ohio vote and the unsuccessful measures in 2022.
