{"id":1190402,"date":"2023-08-24T17:10:16","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T17:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=442366"},"modified":"2023-08-24T17:10:16","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T17:10:16","slug":"abortion-bans-or-democracy-you-cant-have-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/08\/24\/abortion-bans-or-democracy-you-cant-have-both\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion Bans or Democracy \u2014 You Can\u2019t Have Both"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The defeat of<\/u> Ohio Issue 1 on August 8 demonstrated the strength of the pro-abortion rights vote. Activists secured an initiative to be placed on the November ballot constitutionally enshrining the right to abortion until fetal viability. To head off what promises to be a slam dunk for the pros, Ohio\u2019s anti-abortion Republican legislature proposed its own amendment, to raise the bar to amend the state constitution. That was Issue 1, the sole question on the ballot of the special August election.<\/p>\n
Issue 1 was a transparent ruse \u2014 polls showed 58 percent support<\/a> for the abortion rights measure; the lawmakers specified a 60 percent majority to pass an amendment instead of the current simple majority \u2014 and voters soundly rejected it.<\/p>\n Now Ohio is set to follow the six states that have conferred the highest level of state protection on reproductive freedom through popular referendum. Campaigners for a similar 2024 ballot measure in Arizona<\/a> are psyched by Ohio\u2019s victory, and Nebraska<\/a> is gearing up for one as well. Virginia Democrats were moved to elevate reproductive liberty to the top of their platform, in hopes of winning back the state House of Representatives and firewalling abortion from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin\u2019s attempts to impose the most extreme prohibitions.<\/p>\n In Ohio, democracy prevailed \u2014 and the spirit is spreading.<\/p>\n Still, you could see it the opposite way. Ohio\u2019s GOP contrived to upend a process of governance that\u2019s been uncontroversial since 1912. The party introduced a bill<\/a> to allow for an August election on a constitutional amendment \u2014 formerly one could be held only in the case of a \u201cfiscal emergency\u201d \u2014 and when the bill stalled in committee, they held the election anyway. The party of skinflints magnanimously allocated<\/a> $20 million in taxpayer funds to run the referendum, which set in motion the spending<\/a> of another $26.6 million in advertising by organizations for and against the initiative. All in all, that\u2019s a slew of monkey wrenches in the gears of democracy, with one purpose: to force women to have children they don\u2019t want.<\/p>\n You can have abortion bans, or you can have democracy. You can\u2019t have both.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n Most Read <\/h2>\n