Proposal to make it harder to amend Ohio Constitution could make August ballot, pre-empting abortion-rights amendment in November

© Laura Hancock/cleveland.com/TNS Stickers saying “Vote No on HJR 1,” were worn by opponents to House Joint Resolution 1 at the first hearing in a House committee on Wednesday, March 22, 2023.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A proposal to raise the voting threshold to pass a state constitutional amendment is resurfacing with new talks about putting it before voters in August, in a move that could deal a heavy blow to the chances of an abortion-rights amendment passing in Ohio.

Hearings began Wednesday for House Joint Resolution 1, which w require 60% of the vote to pass a constitutional amendment, up from the current simple majority of 50% plus one vote. Opponents packed the Statehouse hearing room on Wednesday morning, a day after Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, said he wanted to see the proposal on ballots in August, rather than November. By Wednesday afternoon, a bill creating a special election in August was introduced in the Ohio Senate, Senate Bill 92.

That could crush the hopes of an amendment abortion-rights amendment to the Ohio Constitution. Backers of the amendment proposal, “The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety,” have begun gathering signatures in an attempt to get the plan before voters in November. The backers have said they believe the proposal could pass under the current requirement of a simple majority, based on polling they’ve studied.

Earlier this week, Huffman, the leader of the Senate and one of the most powerful political figures in the state, said he supports putting the 60% threshold amendment proposal before voters in an August special election. The 60% threshold would apply to any proposal before voters in November, Huffman’s spokesman John Fortney said Wednesday.

Abortion rights proposals have passed in liberal California and Vermont with 67.1% and 76.8% of the vote respectively. But in more conservative states – specifically, Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky and Montana – proposals to enshrine abortion rights or prohibit states from interfering with abortion rights have passed or failed with more modest majorities – in the 52% to 59% range.

A 60% supermajority requirement could mean defeat for backers of Ohio’s abortion rights proposal, although the sponsor of House Joint Resolution 1, the bill requiring the higher threshold, denied defeating an abortion rights amendment was the motivating factor for his bill in a House committee Tuesday. Sponsor Rep. Brian Stewart also said scheduling an August special election was “beyond my pay grade and I’ve not been told what the plan is.”

Committee chair state Rep. Scott Wiggam, a Wooster Republican, also didn’t discuss the timing of a special election to put the proposal before voters ahead of the abortion rights amendment, telling reporters “I cannot speak about what somebody else says about the August ballot.” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican who is the state’s chief elections officer, also declined to back an August special election, saying the matter should be left to the General Assembly.

Stewart sent an email to his GOP colleagues in Dec. 14, when a similar bill before the General Assembly was about to die, telling them that Ohio Right to Life and the Center for Christian Virtue were among the organizations backing his bill.

“After decades of Republicans’ work to make Ohio a pro-life state, the Left intends to write abortion on demand into Ohio’s Constitution,” Stewart wrote. “If they succeed all the work accomplished by multiple Republican majorities will be undone, and we will return to the 19,000+ babies being aborted each year.”

The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety would guarantee that patients could make decisions about reproduction, including birth control, fertility treatment, continuing a pregnancy or abortion and miscarriage care until viability, which is around 22 to 24 weeks.

Stewart introduced the first version of the bill a week after the Nov. 8 election, in which abortion rights advocates won or defeated proposals in a number of states. Republicans were expected to sweep the election across the country, but the U.S. Senate remained in Democratic control in part because of public concern over the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving abortion rights to the states.

In addition to the 60% threshold, which would apply to constitutional amendments initiated by citizens as well as those that initiate in the legislature, HJR 1 has some new provisions that didn’t exist in the last bill. The changes would occur during the signature-gathering part of the winding process to get on the ballot.

It would get rid of the “cure” period – when campaigns trying to get on the ballot fall short by a number of signatures are given one week to collect additional signatures. It would also require citizens to get signatures from all 88 Ohio counties. Currently, campaigns need to get 5% of electors in the most recent gubernatorial election in 44 counties, but HJR 1 would require 5% from all 88 counties.

Stewart said he got rid of the cure period after talking with Republican colleagues, who suggested it. He said Democrats never game to him with suggestions to make the bill more palatable. Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, a Columbus Democrat, said it’s her party’s job to defeat bad legislation, not help bad bills pass.

Russo asked Stewart during the hearing, “Why should a county with 10,000 people have a veto power over the vast majority of the rest of the state?”

Stewart said it was “twisting” to say a small county could veto an amendment.

“There’s a concern that’s been raised that signature-gatherers never have to go out to half of Ohio,” he said. “You know, most of these signatures get gathered in the large metro areas. I don’t think signature gatherers go to Darke County. They don’t go to Holmes County, they don’t go to Noble County. Why should they? If a constitutional amendment is going to apply to all Ohioans in all counties, why should there not be some buy-in from all 88 counties?”

Questioning from Democrats to Stewart got contentious at times.

“Do you take issue with a simple majority being able to go to the ballot to make their voices heard on an issue such as an abortion and protecting 10-year-old rape victims?” Russo asked Stewart.

Russo is referring to a 10-year-old Columbus area girl who became pregnant as the result of rape. Gershon Fuentes, 27, was charged with raping the girl, who obtained an abortion in Indianapolis last summer. At the time, the six-week “heartbeat” ban was in effect in Ohio, and a physician is believed to have determined she was too far along to have an abortion legally in Ohio. Republican politicians say she probably could have had an abortion under exceptions in Ohio law for the life of the girl or woman, but abortion rights advocates say the law is written too vaguely.

“I believe that virtually most issues of public policy, including abortion, should remain debates that we have in the people’s General Assembly, where they are subject to change or they can be subject to updating or they can be subject to the democratic process,” Stewart replied to Russo. “Part of what made the abortion debate so contentious for 50 years is because we did exactly what is being attempted now, where we locked it away. Took it off the table.”

A coalition of over 100 groups – from voters rights organizations to labor unions – are working to defeat the amendment.

Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, declined to discuss how much it would cost the groups to campaign to defeat HJR 1, if it is on the ballot in August. Right now, the coalition is talking to lawmakers, hoping some Republicans who are skeptical will vote against it.

It’s estimated that a special election in August will cost $20 million. Opponents point out it would be funded with taxpayer dollars.

Late last year, state lawmakers passed a law to eliminate August special elections in most circumstances, since turnout is usually low and the cost to hold an election then is expensive.

To read more abortion coverage from The Plain Dealer/ cleveland.com, visit this link.

Laura Hancock covers state government and politics for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com. Read more of here coverage here.

©2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit cleveland.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.