Regarding the recent 7/7 article, ”Abortion fight comes to Ohio: Voters will decide Aug. 8 if amending constitution should be tougher,” I would strongly advocate for a NO vote on the amendment. As someone who’s resided in Ohio for over 40+ years, and wants to protect the right to abortion since I had one in 1994, this ballot process must remain unchanged with the 50% + 1 requirement as it has for over 100 years.
By keeping the constitutional amendment requirement to only 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and allowing an extra ten days to collect more ballot signatures if needed, it makes it more manageable for citizen-led petitions and is fair and equitable to all.
Ohioans have benefited from this process by: creating the State Board of Education, allowing non-white males into the militia, raising the minimum wage, funding for affordable housing developments, and ensuring term limits for: the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and state senators, and hopefully in November and beyond abortion and reproductive rights protections, and equal rights for LGBTQ+ people, and legalizing marijuana use.
What concerns me the most is having the conservative republican legislature vying to take civil rights and liberties away from Ohioans as the right to abortion, birth control, fertility treatment and miscarriage care are health care decisions that belong to an individual, and not the state.
If you care about civil rights and bodily autonomy, and not state-mandated forced birth, support health care rights for abortion services, and all reproductive rights needs, and vote NO on Issue 1 on Aug. 8.
Nancy Dollard
Former Mansfield Resident and Lexington HS Graduate
Uniontown, Ohio
