It’s been over a year since the overturning of Roe v. Wade made the process of getting an abortion in the US significantly more complex, but as of Tuesday, there is some rare good news on the reproductive-autonomy front; Ohio voters just approved a constitutional amendment that ensures access to abortion and other forms of reproductive care.
Historically, Ohio hasn’t been the most reliable state for abortion rights—it is, after all, the birthplace of the six-week “heartbeat bill” that was signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019—but now, the nation’s seventh most populous state is joining Michigan, California, and Vermont in preventing the restriction of abortion access before fetal viability (traditionally interpreted to be around 22-24 weeks of pregnancy).
“This win marks a new beginning for Ohio, where individuals now have the right to make reproductive decisions without government overreach,” Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio executive director Lauren Blauvelt said on Wednesday. Ballot measures protecting the right to abortion have been successful in six states since 2022, but seeing one pass in a bellwether state like Ohio (with double the amount of signatures it needed in the first place) is a hopeful sign that the role of abortion could be less fraught in the upcoming election year than it has been since the fall of Roe.
