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DEAR EDITOR:
The people of the great State of Ohio paused in the middle of their busy lives. Whether they voted on or before Nov. 7, the majority of Ohioans took the time to vote 'Yes' for Issue 1, enshrining women's rights to choose within the Ohio State Constitution forever.
In this Republican-dominant state, the ratio of voting Republicans to voting Democrats is 56 to 44 percent. Those figures are mimicked in the vote approving rights to abortion and reproductive rights with 56 percent voting in favor and 44 percent rejecting Issue 1. What that means is that beyond their usual showing of 44 percent of Democratic voters, there were also Republicans and independent voters who demanded rights for women.
Republicans worked hard to stop this issue from coming onto the ballot. They placed an initiative on the ballot in August. Their idea was if they put an issue on the ballot, it would win if 51 percent approved. But in the case of an initiative or referendum initiated by we, the people, it would win with only 60 percent of the vote. Now, that's not fair.
But we, the people, rose up and voted that down. We didn't even complain (much) that the Republicans made us vote in August, less than a year after they proclaimed there would be no more expensive August elections.
As Democrats went through the process of getting the initiative onto the ballot, Republicans blocked as much as possible -- were all of the signatures properly done? The wording was rejected and had to be resubmitted. That's all OK. The people managing this made certain all required approvals were given.
The bill is reasonable. Abortions generally stop after fetus viability. Nobody can say there are nine-month abortions, because nobody wants one, and no doctor will perform one. What happens is that when a fetus is discovered to have a fatal birth defect -- microencephaly, for example, with the brain growing outside of the skull; or if the mother's life is endangered -- then medications take the mother into early labor for a natural conclusion of the pregnancy. And as their children grow, parents retain all the rights they had before this referendum was passed.
Yet, now the Republican legislature -- 27 of them -- have signed a letter promising to challenge this new law. Ohio legislators have developed a bad habit of passing laws that most Ohioans don't want, like removing the sales tax from guns and ammunition. They just don't care about we, the people, who elected them.
Stay tuned for more on this issue. Legislators cannot force their will upon us.
LINDA COCUZZI RICHTER
Niles