Opponents of Issue 1 say the rejection of the proposal is a good sign that Ohio voters will back a proposed abortion rights constitutional amendment on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Supporters of Issue 1, which sought to make it more difficult to get constitutional amendments approved, say their focus turns to defeating the abortion rights issue.

With Issue 1 defeated Tuesday, the attention turns to the abortion rights issue in the fall. Issue 1 would have raised the threshold to pass constitutional amendments, such as the abortion rights proposal, to at least 60 percent from the current simply majority.

Ohio is the only state that will have an abortion rights issue to consider Nov. 7 with an expensive campaign expected.

ABORTION RIGHTS

Trumbull County Republican Party Chairman Mike Bollas said the abortion rights amendment is “radical” and “would allow for abortion right up until the moment of birth.” It also would strip away the rights of parents “to supervise, control or even know about their minor children being (counseled) to and undergo abortions,” he said.

Bollas said: “Almost no one in their right mind can support (the) extreme November ballot issue. Of course, we expect them to dishonestly misrepresent their radical proposal as a mundane reproductive rights issue rather than the anti-parent proposal it actually is.”

Mahoning County Democratic Party Chair-man Chris Anderson stated: “The defeat of Issue 1 bodes well for the women’s reproductive rights issue, and it will energize a lot of people to get involved in politics.”

Anderson added: “This isn’t an extreme issue. It’s about common sense and letting a doctor take care of a patient. The Republican playbook is to pull everything to the extreme. But this is so victims of rape and incest can have options or if a woman’s life is in jeopardy. It’s allowing women to make decisions and taking it out of the hands of corrupt politicians in Columbus.”

Issue 1 lost Tuesday in Ohio, with 57 percent voting no to 43 percent in favor, according to unofficial results.

Several people on both sides of Issue 1 say the abortion rights amendment was the driving force behind putting the proposal on an August special election.

“The abortion rights people are incredibly motivated, and we have our work cut out for us,” said Tex Fischer, first vice chairman of the Mahoning County Republican Party and an Issue 1 supporter. “It’s going to drive massive turnout.”

But abortion is an easier issue for voters to understand than increasing the threshold for passing constitutional amendments, Fischer said.

Issue I was “a very inside baseball issue,” he said.

BALLOT LANGUAGE

The first sentence of the abortion rights amendment ballot language states: “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion.”

The “reproductive decisions” phrase, opponents say, could be used to permit children to surgically change their gender or have abortions without parental consent.

The amendment would ban the state from interfering with reproductive decisions except for “widely accepted and evidence-based standards of care,” according to ballot language.

It adds: “Abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability. But in no case may such an abortion be prohibited if in the professional judgment of the pregnant patient’s treating physician it is necessary to protect the pregnant patient’s life or health.”

Fetal viability is usually around the 22nd to 24th week of pregnancy and was the Roe v. Wade standard that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned last year.

OTHER OPINIONS

•   Ohio Democratic Party Chairwoman Liz Walters said Issue 1 was rejected “in part because the Republicans said the quiet part out loud that (it) was an attempt to stop abortion rights from having a free and fair election in this state in November. We’re seeing it in the polling, we’re seeing it in the activism that there’s an alignment with the rejection of Issue 1 and how many voters we think support abortion rights in Ohio. We’ll see that in the fall.”

•   Mahoning County Republican Party Chairman Tom McCabe said abortion and Issue 1 “were tied together,” but “it’s two separate issues. It will be easier to get our side invested in abortion. Issue 1 was a divisive issue among Republicans. Several Republicans voted no on Issue 1. It was a really difficult issue to explain.”

•   Karen Zehr, Trumbull County Democratic Party secretary, said the abortion rights amendment in November is a “specific issue that has its own dynamics. Based on what we saw during the petition efforts and polling, support is across party lines. There’s broad support in Ohio.”

She added: “I expect to see opponents use misinformation like we saw with Issue 1. We expect that to continue. Ohioans will separate that from the facts and vote on what’s best for their families. Most Ohioans don’t believe politicians belong in our private medical decisions.”

•   Peter Range, Ohio Right to Life’s chief executive officer, said the defeat of Issue 1 “will not deter us from continuing to fight the … extreme agenda this November, which seeks to allow abortion up until birth and take away parents’ rights to protect their child from being pressured into an abortion or even a sex-change operation.”

•   U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, said: “I expect that almost everybody that voted no (on Issue 1) will vote yes in November, and new people will come as we educate people and see this extremism in the Legislature.”