On Nov. 7 (formerly known as Election Day), my fellow Ohioans and I will conclude our month of voting on “Issue 1,” which proposes a constitutional right to make “reproductive decisions.” Ohio would join only three other states (California, Vermont, and Michigan) that mention abortion in their constitutions.
As a lawyer for women’s issues and former deputy solicitor general for Ohio, I see what this amendment aims to do: require abortions to be provided throughout pregnancy, remove Ohio’s laws governing parental notification and unethical abortive procedures, and create constitutional requirements for transgender procedures for minors.
But that’s not what Ohioans are hearing.
I first saw the ads. They advertise that Issue 1 will overturn Ohio’s “heartbeat” law, which curtails abortion after six weeks, without exception for rape or incest. I then saw identical messaging hit local and corporate media. The Ohio Capital Journal, for example, explained that Issue 1 would merely bring back the pre-2022 “status quo.” The Plain Dealer (Cleveland’s paper) explained that while the amendment would overturn Ohio’s six-week abortion law, “other laws, such as whether minors generally need their parents’ permission to get an abortion, could stay in place.”
It sounds perfectly reasonable. But it’s a complete lie.
As a starting point, constitutional amendments are superior to regular statutes, meaning Ohio’s laws (and local government policies) can only stand if they comply with them. The proposed amendment provides an “individual” with the “right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions.” The term “reproductive decisions” is
