COLUMBUS — With Wednesday's filing of petitions containing nearly a combined 1 million signatures, advocates of etching a right to abortion access into the Ohio Constitution and enacting a law legalizing recreational marijuana sought to bypass lawmakers and directly put their questions to voters.
Wednesday marked the deadline for petitions to be filed if these questions are to appear on the Nov. 7 general election ballot.
If enough signatures survive scrutiny by county boards of election, voters will be asked whether they want to amend the constitution to add reproductive rights, including the decision to keep or terminate a pregnancy.
Whether the abortion amendment will ultimately need approval of a simple majority of voters, as required under current law, or at least 60 percent of voters to take effect will depend on a separate vote in an Aug. 8 special election.
Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights filed petitions containing 710,131 signatures with the Ohio Secretary of State's office. Roughly 413,000 of those must check out as valid signatures of registered voters for the question to appear on the ballot.
Later on Wednesday, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol filed petitions containing 222,198 signatures in hopes at least 124,000 are valid. That signature requirement is lower because advocates are seeking an initiated statute rather than a constitutional amendment.
The group had successfully gathered signatures to directly place the proposed law in the lawmakers’ laps at the start of session in January, but, as expected, the proposal went untouched. So the second round of signatures took place to give voters the final say.
Unlike a constitutional amendment, an initiated statute results in a state law that would be at risk of later amendment or repeal by legislators. At the polls, a simple majority would prevail since initiated statutes would not be subject to a higher approval threshold if voters agree to that change in August.
Both measures also have to meet certain signature thresholds in at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
The major political fight over the proposed Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections and Health and Safety is expected to draw attention and campaign cash from across the country on both sides of the issue.
“There are 422 boxes with 700,000 signatures right across the street,” said Dr. Marcela Azevedo, president of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights. “All of that [is] from people across Ohio who support this. ... They are independents. They're Republicans. They're Democrats.
“They are people of faith, race, and all sorts of genders,” she said. “They are everyone. They are all united in the belief that Ohioans need self-sovereignty.”
The fight will also start early with the Aug. 8 special election as at least some proponents of raising the approval threshold for constitutional amendments have made it clear the abortion amendment is their primary target.
About two dozen abortion-rights opponents stood outside the news conference site with signs containing images of aborted fetuses. Opponents argue that the amendment would usurp the rights of parents of pregnant minors and allow for late-term abortions.
“Viability is in the eye of the beholder,” said Mark Harrington, president of the anti-abortion rights group Created Equal. “It's continually moving, and it’s a hard target to pin down...We don’t want to leave this up to the courts to decide this.
“It should be handled as a policy issue at the Ohio Statehouse, not in the constitution,” he said.
Should it get to the general election ballot and be approved, the amendment would add a right for individuals to make their own reproductive decisions involving contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy.
Government would generally be prohibited from interfering with such decisions, but the amendment does open the door for restrictions on abortion after a fetus has reached viability, a point determined on a case-by-case basis by the patient’s physician.
Viability would be defined as the point when the fetus has a “significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures.”
Advocates say the language is designed to restore the protections that existed until a reconstituted U.S. Supreme Court majority reversed the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision last year. It does not include exceptions for cases involving rape or incest.
MARIJUANA
Cannabis is legal for use in Ohio by approved individuals in limited forms for medical purposes only. Products are grown, tested, and sold within a strictly regulated market.
But if voters get the chance to give the green light, Ohioans over 21 could be allowed for the first time to smoke and grow pot for recreational purposes and share a limited number of their own plants. The law would greatly build on the state’s existing medical marijuana infrastructure of cultivators, processors, and dispensaries to feed the new market.
“Our proposal, we think, is really good, sound, proven policy,” said Tom Haren, Cleveland attorney and spokesman for the proponent organization. “So just on the merits, we think that will prevent lawmakers from taking huge adverse action against us.
“Secondly, we expect to pass with a margin of victory where there's a clear mandate from Ohioans,” he said. “We know this issue is popular...We think it will be politically infeasible for the state to repeal what voters ultimately approve in November.”
The resulting products would be taxed at a rate of 10 percent at the point of sale. Tax revenue would be distributed between host communities, a still-to-be-defined social equity and jobs fund, substance abuse and addiction programs, and the state for administrative costs.
In 2015, Ohio voters soundly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have broadly legalized marijuana use but would have granted exclusive growing rights to 10 facilities. But lawmakers then acted on their own to legalize medical marijuana after polls showed that to be popular among voters.
With some exceptions, the proposal has been opposed by Republicans who control state government, including Gov. Mike DeWine. Senate Republicans have instead been pursuing an alternative expansion of the medical marijuana program, although that did not clear the chamber before it recessed for the summer last week.
First Published July 5, 2023, 4:34 p.m.
