Issues 1 passes in Ohio

The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

by Lucy Cotter

Student Life Editor

Ohio just wrapped up a key election with a focus on two major issues. Issue 1

addresses reproductive rights in Ohio. This election was talked about heavily, as the results would have major influence over the future of the state.

Maps of counties’ votes for both issues within the state, (Graph from CNN).

There had been a lot of controversy in Ohio due to the policies that were already in place. Governor Mike Dewine signed Senate Bill 23 in 2019 that banned abortion, even in the cases of rape and incest, after “fetal cardiac activity can be detected. That’s about five or six weeks into a pregnancy — a point so early that many women and girls don’t yet know they’re pregnant,” according to Ohio Capital Journal. The bill was unenforceable until Roe v. Wade was overturned because it was in violation of federal policy.

The bill went into effect almost a week after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but a Cincinnati judge placed a temporary restraining order on the bill in Sept. of 2022. This allowed abortions up to 22 weeks in Ohio and continued to be policy until the recent election.

In August, the election also held a ballot for Issue 1, regarding Ohio’s constitution, which was rejected. Ohio had previously required a simple majority to pass a constitutional amendment, but passing August’s Issue 1 would have raised that to a 60% majority.

The August Issue 1 also correlated to abortion rights in Ohio, in which people who supported abortion typically voted to reject the issue. Once Roe v. Wade was overturned, states began proposing amendments that protected abortion rights. Although some of these protections would pass, it was not with a 60% majority, so pro-choice voters wanted to stop this issue from being passed.

Issue 1 passed with 2,186,965 (56.6%) “yes” votes. Issue 1 supporters mainly fall in highly condensed counties according to voting results.

According to the map, it looks as if the issue did not pass as most counties are colored purple. Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo have a much more dense population than other areas, so they have more votes that counted to pass Issue 1.

Age also played a major role on Issue 1 as exit polls show interesting results. According to exit poll results from The Washington Post, 77% percent of voters ages 18-29 voted yes on Issue 1.

The poll also shows that as age increases, “yes” votes decrease. New voter Hannah Snyder (12), says she thinks “the young people carried the election because when I asked my parents’ views on the election, they disagreed strongly.”

Now that the amendment to protect abortion and reproductive rights passed, it will be enacted on December 7, 2023. Ohio law protects the right to abortion and does not put any disciplinary action on one who chooses to have one.