This year, on November 7, Ohio voters made history. In a statewide vote, constituents approved a constitutional amendment that will guarantee access to abortion and other reproductive health care, making it the seventh state in the nation where voters have protected abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June, per the Associated Press. The victory came just a few months after a special election in which Ohio voters also rejected a Republican-backed measure that would've made changing the state's constitution even more difficult—a move many believed was a deliberate attempt to derail the proposed amendment.
The citizen-led ballot measure, known as Issue 1, was backed by Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights (OURR), a coalition of reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations working to protect Ohioans' control over their own reproductive freedom. While big legacy organizations within the coalition were heavily involved in knocking on doors and ensuring voter turnout, it was the Ohio Women's Alliance—one of the only Black-led organizations in OURR—that led a huge field program, reaching out to more than 1.3 million young, female, and BIPOC voters across the state.
And exit polls have shown those efforts were essential; when it came time, 60 percent of female voters, 83 percent of Black voters, and 77 percent of voters under 30 voted yes on the issue. |
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