By
Ohio voters will decide in November whether to add the right to an abortion to the state's constitution.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose said Tuesday that supporters have collected enough signatures to place the amendment on the ballot for November.
In order for the abortion amendment to be placed on the ballot in November, supporters had to collect over 413,487 signatures, with a certain amount of those signatures in certain counties.
“Petitioners filed a sufficient number of valid signatures and satisfied the requirements prescribed ... I will direct the boards of election to place the proposed amendment on the November 7, 2023 general election ballot,” LaRose wrote in a letter Tuesday.
Republican Gov. Mike Dewine signed a six-week abortion ban into law in 2019 that went into effect last year, when the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. But that law has been halted by courts amid litigation over the validity of the ban. Currently, abortion in Ohio is legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
Meanwhile, before voters get to the November ballot measure, they face an Aug. 8 special election on an amendment that would make it harder for future constitutional amendment ballot measures to pass — including the one on abortion in November.
Currently, a simple majority of voters needs to vote in favor to pass a constitutional amendment. The August ballot measure would see future amendment need at least 60% support to pass.
Recent polling, however, found that a majority of Ohio voters oppose amending the constitution to make it harder to pass constitutional amendments.
Just 27% of voters said they were in favor of making it harder to pass amendments.
