Ohio Governor Mike DeWine urged Ohioans to reject a proposed amendment that would place a right to an abortion in the state constitution as early voting on the measure began on Wednesday.
DeWine and Ohio first lady Fran DeWine said that Issue 1, the measure that would put abortion into the state constitution, would “allow an abortion at any time during a pregnancy” and that it “goes too far,” in a new ad for Protect Women Ohio, a ballot issue political action committee advocating against Issue 1.
“Fran and I have carefully studied it [Issue One],” DeWine said in the ad. “But whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, Issue One is just not right for Ohio.”
Pro-life advocates and Republicans have said that the amendment would push forward the movement to have no limits on abortion in the state. In a legal analysis released last week, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said that, if passed, Issue 1 would effectively legalize all abortion in the state.
“[T]he Amendment would give greater protection to abortion to be free from regulation than at any time in Ohio’s history,” the analysis said. “That new test includes definitions and other terms that likewise make it harder for any law covering ‘reproductive decisions’ to survive.”
The effort to pass Issue 1 is supported by the Ohio Democratic Party, the ACLU of Ohio, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, and the Ohio Women’s Alliance.
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Protect Women Ohio earlier this week released an ad that pointed out that Martin Haskell, a proponent of partial-birth abortion, had given $100,000 to Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, a political action committee that opposed a Republican-backed measure that would have made it more difficult to amend the state constitution and has advocated for passage of Issue 1.
🚨 NEW AD: Meet Martin Haskell, the infamous abortionist who "routinely" performed unsafe, elective late term abortions in Ohio.
Issue 1 would give monsters like Haskell the constitutional right to bring back this barbaric practice.
Vote NO on Issue 1.https://t.co/BPdYWW3XZ3 pic.twitter.com/CQmz4LZrnd
— Protect Women Ohio (@ProtectWomenOH) October 7, 2023
Amy Natoce, press secretary for Protect Women Ohio, said in a statement to The Daily Wire that Haskell’s donation was because he knew it would be “an investment in his late-term abortion practice.”
“By allowing abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy and eliminating commonsense health and safety protections for women, Issue 1 gives free rein to late-term abortionists like Martin Haskell. No Ohioan wants to bring that type of extremism and tragedy to our state,” she said. “Martin Haskell invented the barbaric partial-birth abortion technique in Ohio, and brags that he “routinely” performs late-term abortions at 20-24 weeks, even admitting 80% of the partial-birth abortions he performs are ‘purely elective.'”
Ohioans will also vote on the legalization of recreational marijuana for adults.