The GOP's Ballot Measure Wars

This is not what democracy looks like

Nov 06, 2023

When Ohio voters decide tomorrow whether or not to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, please remember one thing: Republicans spent tens of millions of dollars and months of political maneuvering to prevent this moment.

Because they know that when abortion is on the ballot, abortion wins.

Instead of defending their abortion bans or changing hearts and minds, conservative lawmakers and the anti-abortion movement have focused all of their efforts on stopping voters from having a say at all. Given how popular abortion rights are, they figure it’s better not to risk it.

Republicans’ interference in the democratic process—not just in Ohio, but in every state where pro-choice activists are using ballot measures to restore or protect reproductive rights—isn’t just about keeping abortion banned. It’s about hiding the fact that voters want abortion to be legal.

With every new ballot measure win, it becomes clearer and clearer that despite Republican rhetoric to the contrary, America isn’t ‘split’ on abortion. If voters realize this—not by reading polls, but by seeing their communities come out in force for abortion rights—it leaves lawmakers with no choice but to admit the truth: that they’re passing these bans against voters’ wishes. And that when it comes to abortion, they don’t really care what Americans want.

Nowhere has this been more evident than in Ohio, where the state GOP has done anything and everything possible to stop voters from passing Issue 1.

First, Ohio Republicans tried to raise the standards on ballot measures. They wanted amendments to get 60% of the vote in order to pass, instead of a simple majority. They also tried to require that citizen-led initiatives collect signatures from every county in the state, as opposed to half of them. That would allow a single rural county with just a few residents to shut down a law that every other Ohioan wanted.

Republicans were so intent on making this happen that they held a special election that cost taxpayers $18 million—all the while claiming it had nothing to do with abortion. It took months (and a leaked memo) for them to admit that the election was actually “100%” about abortion. Thankfully, voters came out in force to oppose the GOP’s efforts, and ballot measure standards remained the same.

While Republican leaders were trying to make it harder to pass pro-choice ballot measures, anti-abortion activists sued state ballot board to stop voters from seeing the amendment at all. They argued that because the measure would protect multiple reproductive rights—from abortion and birth control to miscarriage care and fertility treatments—it needed to be split into two different measures. If they won their case, pro-choice activists would have to start collecting signatures from scratch, and collect twice as many. Thankfully, once again, these efforts failed.

But conservatives weren’t done yet.

Once it became clear that the amendment was headed to voters whether Republicans liked it or not, the state GOP turned their attention to the ballot measure summary—the language that voters read before deciding whether to support or oppose an amendment.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose drafted an incendiary and false summary that changed the term ‘fetus’ to ‘unborn child’, left out the fact the amendment would protect rights other than abortion (like miscarriage care and fertility treatment), and inverted language about restrictions later in pregnancy to say that the amendment would “always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability” if a doctor deems it necessary.

When abortion rights groups went to the state Supreme Court to ask that voters simply see the amendment itself—which was actually shorter than the biased summary—the Court denied their request. That means when voters go to the polls tomorrow, they’ll be reading an anti-abortion politician’s interpretation of the amendment rather than the amendment itself.

All of this, and we still haven’t gotten to conservatives’ multi-million dollar disinformation campaign. Anti-abortion groups and Republican lawmakers have been claiming in advertisements, interviews and public appearances that Issue 1 would eradicate parental rights—allowing children to have abortions and gender-affirming surgery without parental consent. With abortion rights more popular than ever, the hope is that anti-trans bigotry will be better received than anti-choice talking points. But that doesn’t mean they stopped those either.

For months, activists and legislators have claimed that the measure would allow for abortion ‘up until birth’, despite clear language restricting abortion later in pregnancy. And just in case that messaging didn’t make its way into the public consciousness, conservatives also have started to tell voters that they don’t need to support Issue 1 because abortion is already legal in Ohio.

In a recent public forum, for example, a spokesperson from the anti-abortion group Protect Women Ohio told viewers, “you Google ‘what step you can have an abortion at’, it says Ohians at 22 weeks.” What she neglected to mention, of course, is that Republicans passed a 6-week abortion ban that’s been blocked by the courts. Without the protection of Issue 1, that near-total ban could go into effect.

What’s more, this kind of misinformation is being disseminated using taxpayer funds. An investigation from the Associated Press found that lies about Issue 1 were being spread by a state-run website. Because the site is run by the government, it’s prioritized in online search results.

And that’s just in Ohio. Republicans have launched similar attacks on democracy in every state considering or working on a pro-choice ballot measure.

In Missouri, Republicans tried to stop any abortion rights amendments from getting to voters by holding up the process for signature collecting. The state Attorney General, for example, refused to sign off on a cost estimate for a measure—a legally necessary step before activists can start petitioning for support. AG Andrew Bailey claimed that restoring abortion rights would cost the state billions of dollars rather than the $51,000 listed by the state auditor. (Voters see this number in the ballot summary when they go to the polls.) Bailey had to be forced by the state Supreme Court to give his approval after months of holding up the democratic process.

Now Bailey says that if abortion is protected in the state constitution, he will refuse to enforce the law. Instead, he says, the state will have to hire outside counsel to the tune of $21 million—an estimate Bailey wants included in, you guessed it, the ballot summary that voters see.

Just as they did in Ohio, Republicans in Missouri are also trying to raise the standards on ballot measures, and are pushing a false ballot summary: Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has been fighting in court to approve a summary that says pro-choice amendments would allow for “dangerous, unregulated and unrestricted abortion” by those without a medical license.

In Florida, where Republicans passed a 6-week abortion ban, Attorney General Ashley Moody is petitioning the state Supreme Court to reject a pro-choice ballot measure. She doesn’t want Floridians to be able to vote on it at all, even though Republicans there are in a strong position: Florida requires 60% of the vote to pass a ballot measure. But the state’ abortion restrictions are just that unpopular, and Moody knows it. (Even the majority of Republicans oppose a 6-week ban.)

And just as Republicans and anti-abortion activists worked in tandem in Ohio and Missouri, they’re doing the same in Florida. While Moody tries to stop the measure from moving forward, a Florida anti-abortion group is urging their followers to “report the precise locations” of pro-choice petitioners using a dedicated website. The idea is to follow signature-gatherers wherever they go, harassing them and anyone who might approach to sign in support of getting abortion on the ballot.

The list goes on and on. In South Dakota, abortion rights groups were banned from gathering signatures in certain popular areas. In Mississippi, Republicans considered restoring the ballot initiative process in the state—but specified that the measures could not be about abortion.

Let’s be clear: This is not what democracy looks like. Americans deserve the right to make their voices heard on abortion rights without interference or obstruction. And if Republicans are so sure this is a ‘pro-life’ nation, then what are they so afraid of? I think we know the answer. They’re afraid of us.

They should be.