When it comes to deciding Issue 1 on the Nov. 7 ballot, Ohioans should consult their conscience.
The fetus is surely a life, a member of the human race.
As a society we should respect the right of the fetus to its own life.
But it’s not that simple. The interests of the fetus are intertwined with those of the mother. It’s her body, and she has rights.
Ballot Issue 1 would amend the Ohio Constitution to guarantee individuals freedom to make their own decisions on abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, and miscarriage care.
It suggests there could be other rights that are protected, but those are not named in the amendment.
The amendment would set a high bar to continuation of any of the hurdles that the Ohio General Assembly has implemented since the 1980s to limit access to abortions, such as waiting periods, hospital transfer agreements, and parental notice.
It would immediately invalidate the state’s ill-advised Heartbeat Law that is under a court stay but which could return as the state’s governing abortion policy if Issue 1 fails.
Under that law, abortion would be illegal at about six weeks, when some women don’t even know they are pregnant, or have not had time to decide what to do.
Advocates say the amendment returns us to the Roe vs. Wade status quo. In fact, it would likely liberalize abortion policy beyond the rulings of Roe vs. Wade and its successor cases.
Roe vs. Wade legalized all abortions up to the point of viability, around 22 weeks of pregnancy. After that, the right to get an abortion existed only if the mother’s “life or health” were endangered.
Issue 1 essentially continues that exception with post-viability abortions. We agree that that potential exists of late-term elective abortions, though they are admittedly rare.
In Ohio last year, 66 percent of abortions occurred at less than nine weeks — 12,293 abortions. There were 107 abortions later than 20 weeks, but none after 24 weeks.
Issue 1’s language says the state “shall not, directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate” against the exercise of an abortion right. It gives the woman’s doctor the sole right to decide whether a woman’s health concerns justifies the termination of a viable pregnancy.
This amendment requires us to trust the medical profession — the same medical profession that gave us opioid pill mills and blithely awards certificates for medical marijuana.
Ohio law should allow a doctor to carry out an abortion or an emergency delivery if the mother’s life is in imminent danger, and it shouldn’t require a constitutional amendment to point out that obvious medical reality.
But if a woman goes to an abortion clinic to ask a doctor to approve her abortion because her life or health is in danger, one suspects that the fetus is not the priority.
This amendment extends and enshrines the rights of women to get abortions.
It doesn’t protect parents or the fetus itself. The amendment doesn’t say affirmatively that abortions cannot be performed past the point of viability, only that politicians can pass laws protecting the fetus after viability.
It doesn’t say parents have a right to be notified of their daughters’ abortion plans (unless she gets a judicial bypass). However, multiple eminent Ohio law practitioners assure us that parental notification will be upheld in Ohio even under the amendment.
Even the most conservative lawmakers have recognized a right to abortion by way of the Heartbeat Law.
Had the Ohio General Assembly repealed the Heartbeat Law and installed a more liberal window in which women in Ohio could get an abortion and also made clear that miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies are different procedures, then Ohio might have been a less easy target for an expansive abortion rights amendment.
They didn’t. They failed.
As a result, many Ohioans feel that Issue 1 is the state’s only protection against restoration of the six-week ban, which has no exceptions for rape or incest and which creates criminal penalties that frighten doctors.
If Issue 1 passes, the state constitution will protect women’s rights to their bodies. Those rights will be sacrosanct in this strongly worded pro-abortion amendment.
It will be up to Ohio’s General Assembly, the Supreme Court, and the medical profession to protect the rights of unborn babies.
It’s not good enough.
With just one doctor’s say-so, this amendment would allow late-term elective abortions of nearly fully grown unborn babies, something Ohioans should not be willing to stomach as a constitutional right.
Ohio needs a reasonable abortion law that respects the life of a fetus that is viable, and is also reasonably respectful of the lives of fetuses that aren’t yet viable.
It needs a law that the great majority of Ohioans, pro-life and pro-choice, can accept.
That’s a judgment that should be made through the legislative process, not through the unsubtle and permanent impact of amending the state constitution.
A “no” vote on Issue 1 potentially enshrines the Heartbeat Law, although we point out that that bill is under injunction and could be struck down.
If Issue 1 fails and the Heartbeat Law resurfaces, we call on the great middle of moderate voters to make their demand known for legislators who will pass laws that take the interests of both the fetus and the woman into account.
The Blade has always supported women’s right to an abortion.
This amendment to the state constitution goes too far and should be defeated.
First Published October 22, 2023, 4:00 a.m.
