Ironically, states’ rights are crushing the GOP’s abortion agenda

Why are some Republicans so dissatisfied with democracy? 

Immediately after Ohio voters set an example for strong participation in direct democracy while soundly rejecting Issue 1, a measure clearly aimed at curtailing abortion, the authoritarian far right was deeply into the blame game. Issue 1’s supporters blamed “out-of-state dark money groups” and lack of time for their defeat. Ohio’s Republican secretary of state Frank LaRose called the vote “devastating.”

The sputtering was telling. Because this is what the Republican anti-reproductive freedom crowd claimed it wanted all along: the chance to turn the question of abortion over to the states and let the people decide. Now, after the demise of Roe, that’s exactly what they’ve got. Except now that it’s not going their way, letting the people speak suddenly doesn’t seem to them like such a good idea.  

And make no mistake: Issue 1 was all about abortion. LaRose wasn’t even subtle about it: The measure was “100 percent” about blocking abortion rights, according to remarks he made last year.  

The actual text of Issue 1 included language about whether the state should raise the threshold for a vote to amend the state constitution, from a simple majority to 60 percent. Issue 1 was rushed to a special election in August because, in November, Ohioans will vote on a constitutional amendment to protect the right to abortion care in the state. Everyone knew Issue 1 was a last-ditch attempt to prevent that amendment from passing, and voters turned out in droves to beat it. 

But here’s where it gets dicey. Republicans are seeing that in states where voters have had the opportunity to weigh in on reproductive freedom, protection of abortion rights has overwhelmingly won. Since Roe was overturned, there have been a half dozen statewide abortion-related ballot measures, and protecting abortion care has won every time. In states where conservatives have tried to get at the issue by raising the threshold for passing ballot measures, efforts have been less than successful; voters smell the hidden agenda, and they don’t like it. 

So will Republicans accept that their anti-abortion campaigns are wildly unpopular and accede to the people’s wishes? It doesn’t look that way.  

Advocates for reproductive rights say abortion has been an “accelerant and a motivator” of fights to raise the bar for passing ballot measures. There are still plans in the works to try raising the threshold for ballot measures in at least two more states, Arizona and North Dakota, even though the strategy has not worked well so far. Abortion rights opponents in Ohio are signaling they’ll fight harder as the November referendum on a constitutional amendment gets near.  

Of course, the brass ring for the anti-reproductive freedom cause is not a patchwork of state-level regulations. It is, and always has been, a federal ban — no matter what they say about states’ rights and letting the democratic process work. 

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is one of the best-known and most powerful groups in the fight, and it says it will not support any candidate that doesn’t support a ban. Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Mike Pence are for a ban. Ron DeSantis is being coy about a national ban, but he signed a ban into law in Florida, so we can have zero confidence he wouldn’t do the same as president.  

And like the kid who’s losing at “Monopoly” and flips over the board so nobody can play, the anti-abortion crowd wants to keep changing rules and upending processes in its effort not to lose.  In Ohio, the August special election on Issue 1 was scheduled in an effort to prevent the November ballot initiative from passing, after the very same state officials had decided to scrub August elections, saying they were low turnout and bad for democracy. 

Unlike “Monopoly,” the fight for reproductive freedom is not a game. People have seen the stories about the 10-year-old rape survivor who had to flee her state to get abortion care, women with complications of pregnancy who nearly died when they were denied an abortion, and young people who now have to organize their lives and jobs around whether reproductive freedom is allowed in a state. Scared that something could go wrong and abortion care would be unavailable, some people are choosing to avoid getting pregnant altogether.  

The Dobbs ruling was devastating. But as in Ohio, it will galvanize supporters of reproductive freedom to work within our democracy for a solution. Supporters will mobilize to pass abortion protections via plebiscites in other states that allow them. Supporters need to focus on winning elections for statewide offices — including elections for state courts, which will play a huge role in protecting abortion care. And 2024 will decide who sits in the White House and in Congress, with all that signifies for federal law and federal courts.    

In the long run, we can play by the rules and win. Abortion opponents can’t, and they know it.  

Svante Myrick is the president of People For the American Way.