Columbus, Ohio: In a blow to abortion opponents in Ohio, a fall ballot issue aimed at enshrining access to the procedure in the state’s constitution will not be split into two separate issues — one about abortion, and one about other reproductive healthcare.
In a unanimous ruling Thursday, the Ohio Supreme Court sided with the bipartisan Ohio Ballot Board over Cincinnati Right to Life which, on behalf of a pair of anti-abortion voters, had argued that abortion should be considered as its own, separate question.
Justices disagreed, freeing Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights and Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom to continue to gather signatures aimed at making the November ballot. Their deadline is July 5.
A decision the other way would have invalidated the groups’ statewide efforts so far, forcing them to go back to the drawing board and collect new signatures, and twice as many.
But in its majority opinion, the court found that the proposed amendment’s call to protect an individual’s right to make their own decisions about a continuum of reproductive care issues — contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion — met the standard of applying to the “same general purpose.”
“Even if we accept realtors’ argument that abortion is a ‘unique’ act that is ‘inherently different’ from other reproductive decisions, the decision to obtain an abortion is still a reproductive decision,” the majority said.
