Abortion rights are back on the ballot on Tuesday, with voters in Ohio heading to the polls to vote on Issue 1, a proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
The vote will have both political and medical consequences that stretch beyond Ohio. Issue 1 is the only abortion-related referendum this year, and the results will indicate whether the backlash to the demise of Roe v Wade will continue to translate into wins at the ballot box.
If Issue 1 fails, the Ohio state supreme court will be free to reinstate a six-week abortion ban, outlawing the procedure before many people even know they are pregnant. Ohioans who want abortions will need to flee to other states for the procedure, contributing to pressure on abortion clinics throughout the country.
Supporters of Issue 1 are cautiously optimistic: an October poll found that 58% of Ohio residents planned to vote yes. “You just start going through these doomsday scenarios of what happens if we have an abortion ban,” said Representative Emilia Sykes, a Democrat whose district includes Akron, Ohio. “We are going to prevail on Tuesday, and hopefully continue to send the message to leave us alone. Really, just leave us alone.”
Over the last several weeks, Parinita Singh, 32, has spent roughly 30 hours canvassing houses in support of Issue 1.
At one home, with a sign out front reading “Be a Patriot: VOTE PRO-LIFE”, she entered into a cordial but spirited verbal sparring match with a man in his 80s. The pair touched on seemingly every argument in the US abortion debate: is a fetus a person or a clump of cells? Can’t people just choose to give up their kids for adoption? Should men get a say? What about religion?
The man, who declined to give his name to the Guardian, tried to press Bible pamphlets into Singh’s hands.
“God doesn’t force his opinions on anybody,” he told her.
“Sounds like he is, if he’s telling women not to have abortions,” Singh replied.
In the year since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, a version of this conversation has played out across the country – and at the ballot box. In 2022, abortion rights supporters won every abortion-related referendum put to voters. This year, Ohio will become the first reliably red state to vote on whether to explicitly add abortion rights to the state constitution since the fall of Roe.
Millions of dollars have flooded into Ohio in the last several weeks. Recent filings show that Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, a name for the coalition backing Issue 1, has reported bringing in nearly $30m since August, including $3.5m from a group linked to the billionaire George Soros.
That’s far more than the anti-abortion side has raised: Protect Women Ohio, a coalition that’s leading the charge against Issue 1, reported raising just shy of $10m. Money flowed into the coalition through its action fund, which received donations from the influential anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America and the Concord Fund, an organization linked to the conservative power broker Leonard Leo.
Issue 1 lawn signs are visible across the state, with “Vote Yes” signs often placed right beside signs urging people to “Vote No”. Ohio residents reported being bombarded with ads for one side or the other.
But the barrage of information about the vote has also left many Ohioans bewildered. Some of the confusion stems from the fact that this is the second time Ohioans have gone to the polls this year to vote on an “Issue 1”. In August, Ohioans voted on a measure that would have made it harder to amend the state constitution. At that time, people who supported abortion rights were urged to vote “no”. Now, they have to vote “yes” to protect the procedure.
That swap has been a “disaster”, said one abortion rights coalition worker. Marian Carcel, a 71-year-old who lives near Akron and has been knocking on doors to support Issue 1, says she keeps meeting people who don’t know how to vote for what they want.
“Some people thought, ‘Oh, well I’m done. I’ve already done what I’m supposed to do, I voted no in August,’” Carcel said. “And then they’re like, ‘Well, I voted no in August, aren’t I supposed to vote no now?”
Anti-abortion forces have also tried to seed opposition to the measure by arguing that Issue 1 would let minors get abortions and even gender-affirming care without their parents’ consent – a dubious suggestion, legal experts told the Guardian. Still, anti-Issue 1 signs often urge people to vote to “protect children” and “protect parents’ rights”.
At a pro-Issue 1 rally on Saturday, dozens of attendees carried signs with messages like “Mind Your Own Uterus” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights”. One young girl carried a neon pink sign that read, in a childish scrawl, “Vote Yes on One,” complete with nine shaky exclamation points.
But not all Ohioans trust the polls.
“If we went off polls, Donald J Trump would have never been president,” said Singh, the canvasser. “I’m anxious AF. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in over a month right now, because I’m just like, ‘What’s gonna happen?’”
As Singh canvassed an Akron neighborhood, she met several men who said they planned to vote for Issue 1, especially because they worried about rape victims being forced to carry pregnancies to term. Ohio’s six-week abortion ban does not include exceptions for rape or incest.
“I believe in people having the ability to do what they want, having the freedom to make their own choices,” said David Lewis, as he watched his two daughters play on his porch. “I wouldn’t want their rights to be taken away in the future.”
