Ohio right to abortion: Issue 1 voting results on the state’s constitutional amendment
Ohio voters have enshrined access to abortion in their state’s constitution by approving an amendment guaranteeing these rights.
Voters in Ohio have voted to approve a constitutional amendment that establishes the legal right to have an abortion in the US state. With 95% of all ballots counted, support for the measure had accrued over 56% of the vote in Tuesday’s election.
In August, Ohioans rejected a ballot measure that aimed to increase the vote threshold needed to amend the state’s constitution to 60%. That vote’s failure to pass meant that voters in the Buckeye State only needed a simple majority to change the state’s founding document.
| Total Votes | Percent | |
| Yes | 2,122,482 | 56.2% |
| No | 1,652,699 | 43.8% |
| Vote reported: 95% | ||
Safe and legal access to abortion is popular
In each state where the right to an abortion has been challenged, voters have rejected the curtailing of the rights. A national poll conducted by CBS found that a majority of respondents see being pregnant as more dangerous in the post-Roe era. Additionally, 57 percent of those surveyed said they support legal access to abortion in “all or most cases,” and already Ohio voters have made their opinion clear.
Language of the proposition
- 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.
Source: Secretary of State of Ohio
Those who support the constitutional amendment voted yes, and those opposed voted no.