It is no secret that Republicans and the pro-life movement lost big in Ohio on Nov. 7. Winning by more than half a million votes, the Issue 1 ballot initiative enshrined the so-called “right” to abortion in the state’s Constitution. Rather than examine how this managed to happen in a state that Donald Trump won by 8 points in 2020 or what role abortion has in the future of the party platform, it is important to address what comes next for Republicans and the pro-life movement in Ohio and nationwide — and most importantly, how they can redeem themselves after this tragic loss.
When the Founding Fathers devised our government, one of their greatest fears about democracy was its tendency to imperil public morality and virtue. Fisher Ames, an early American representative and leader in the Federalist Party, wrote that “the known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be liberty.” Voting majorities do not determine whether an act is right or wrong, and it is clear in this instance that democracy has inclined itself to immorality. Therefore, abortion should have never been on the ballot in the first place.
By opening up the abortion debate to a vote, this initiative pitted swaths of activist Democrats who were energized and ready to mobilize the entire state to defend abortion against Republicans, who were exhausted from losses the last few election cycles and suffered from a low voter turnout.
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