From Liberty Counsel Action:
On Tuesday, Ohioans approved the Issue 1 ballot measure 57 to 43 percent to enshrine abortion in the state constitution. The abortion amendment is far reaching and will allow abortion up to live birth.
According to the ballot summary, the amendment will:
- Establish in the Constitution of the State of Ohio an individual right to one’s own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion;
- Create legal protections for any person or entity that assists a person with receiving reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion;
- Prohibit the State from directly or indirectly burdening, penalizing, or prohibiting abortion before an unborn child is determined to be viable, unless the State demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means;
- Grant a pregnant woman’s treating physician the authority to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether an unborn child is viable;
- Only allow the State to prohibit an abortion after an unborn child is determined by a pregnant woman’s treating physician to be viable and only if the physician does not consider the abortion necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health; and
- Always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability if, in the treating physician’s determination, the abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health
The actual language of the amendment is the following:
Article I, Section 22. The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety
A. Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on:
- contraception;
- fertility treatment;
- continuing one’s own pregnancy;
- miscarriage care; and
- abortion.
B. The State shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against either:
- An individual’s voluntary exercise of this right or
- A person or entity that assists an individual exercising this right, unless the State demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means to advance the individual’s health in accordance with widely accepted and evidence-based standards of care. However, abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability. But in no case may such an abortion be prohibited if in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.
C. As used in this Section:
- “Fetal viability” means “the point in a pregnancy when, in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician, the fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures. This is determined on a case-by-case basis.”
- “State” includes any governmental entity and any political subdivision.
D. This Section is self-executing.
Effective December 7, Issue 1 overrides the state’s pro-life laws, including a law banning partial-birth abortion, codifies abortion in Ohio, and erodes parental rights by overriding parental consent laws for minors seeking to obtain an abortion. This vote potentially opens the door for a radical gender ideology on minors by using vague terms like “reproductive decisions,” and “individual” instead of “woman,” which critics warn could further the transgender agenda on minors.
The deceptively worded vote included non-issues to garner more votes, including contraception, fertility, and “miscarriage care.”
Liberty Counsel Action Chairman Mat Staver, said, “Ohio has become the most radical abortion state in the country with a deceptively worded ballot measure. When the full impact of this vote becomes known that it allows abortion up until the point of birth, I pray that common decency will prevail and the voters repeal this deadly amendment. All life is sacred, especially those most vulnerable among us. Death and destruction of a human life made in the image of God is never the right decision. Life always wins over death.”
