U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown speaks to a supporter at a Democratic Party campaign event for Franklin County voters. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original article.)
It’s been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision sent the question of abortion rights back to the states, and despite new constitutional protections in Ohio, Democrats believe it remains a potent political issue.
The party is trying to portray this November’s U.S. Senate race as a choice between maintaining reproductive rights or opening the door to a nationwide ban.
What they’re up against
Republicans’ muddled messaging on the topic has only encouraged that line of attack. Former President Donald Trump brags about overturning Roe v. Wade and even floated the idea of punishing women who sought out abortions. While he was in office, he expressed support for a 20-week abortion ban and this March, he floated the idea of a 15-week ban. A month later, he tried to wash his hands of the debate, stating he wouldn’t sign a national ban and arguing in a video “it’s up to the states to do the right thing.”
Bernie Moreno, Ohio’s GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate, has wrestled with the issue as well. As a U.S. Senate candidate in 2022, he described himself as “100% pro-life with no exceptions.” He now argues there should be exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother.
Earlier this year during a debate, Moreno rejected a nationwide “ban” on abortions before arguing for a “a 15-week floor.” Shortly after the Alabama Supreme Court ruling threatened access to in-vitro fertilization he dismissed the incident as “a manufactured issue.”
In an emailed statement, Moreno’s campaign spokeswoman argued Democrats are “knowingly lying about Bernie’s stance.”
“He has made clear throughout this entire campaign that he supports exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother,” according to the statement. “He has long stated that abortion should primarily be decided at the state level. Process wise, he’s comfortable with any path forward that ends elective, late-term abortions with reasonable exceptions and saves as many babies as possible.”
The problem is Republican candidates find themselves between a rock and a hard place: a primary electorate where the slightest moderate stance is seen as a liability and a general electorate who favor abortion rights by wide margins.
Does that translate?
Dobbs was two years ago, and since then, Ohioans have added reproductive rights protections to the state constitution by a convincing margin. While Republicans tie themselves in knots over the issue, Democrats have to decide if it remains salient enough to drive voters to the polls.
To U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, the answer is an emphatic yes.
“The fight is still on,” he said in a Monday press conference. “The energy from last fall will continue into this year and beyond, in this race and Supreme Court races and others.”
Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Connie Schultz, who is also Brown’s wife, said she’s 66 and regularly hears from women her age or older who have become activists for the first time.
“I feel like a confessional here,” she said, “because so many times former Republicans come up and want me to know they’re former Republicans, and they want to name the date that they became former Republicans — it’s either Trump’s election or Issue 1.”
Brown and Schultz were joined at the press conference by Gloria Steinem. The leader of second-wave feminism – and as Brown was quick to note, Toledo native – argued questions of bodily autonomy are “at least as basic as freedom of speech or freedom of assembly.”
“It is fundamental to every democracy that we — all women and men — are able to have bodily integrity,” she argued.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — JULY 05: Kellie Copeland, executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio speaks at the Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights press conference where they announced the delivery of 402 boxes of petitions with over 700,000 signatures to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, July 5, 2023, at the Columbus Athenaeum, Corinthian Room, downtown Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal)
Abortion Forward executive director Kellie Copeland argued the people galvanized by the Dobbs decision are still engaged. Copeland was one of the chief organizers behind the reproductive rights amendment.
“When I said it was nearly a million people that got Issue 1 on the ballot and passed it, I’m not talking about voters. I’m talking about activists,” she said. “We have a trained army of citizen activists across this state, in every county, who understand that abortion is on the ballot again. If I was Bernie Moreno, I would watch out.”
“A walking tomb”
Brown sought to tie Moreno directly to the campaign against Ohio’s reproductive rights amendment, criticizing him for contributing to the campaign against Issue 1.
“You have a candidate that is arrogant enough to say, well, yeah, I might have tried to defeat Issue 1 — I gave $100,000 — and even though the voters decided, I’m still for a national abortion ban,” Brown said.
Katie May and her child. (Photo courtesy of Katie May.)
The incumbent U.S. Senator and others argue that kind of arbitrary cutoff isn’t built to handle the wide range of potential complications in a pregnancy.
A woman named Katie May spoke at the press conference, telling the story of her experience in 2022, when she and her husband were thrilled to be pregnant. But not long after the Dobbs decision, they learned she’d had a missed miscarriage.
“Meaning the baby had died,” she explained, “but my body hadn’t let go of that pregnancy.”
Because Ohio’s six-week abortion ban took effect following Dobbs, May couldn’t immediately get treatment. Instead, her doctors told her she’d have to wait at least 10 days before getting an additional ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy was non-viable.
“I had to walk around the world for another 12 days pretending to be having a normal life, feeling pregnant, all while knowing that I was carrying a dead baby inside,” she described. “I just felt like a walking tomb,” she said.
May said those 12 days were an unnecessary risk to her health and described that second ultrasound as traumatic.
Last August, May and her husband had a little boy.
“I love being a parent, and I want more kids in the future, but I’m at high risk for future miscarriages,” she said. “With abortion bans and without access to the appropriate health care options, trying to get pregnant again would be significantly risking my life.”
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The post On Dobbs Anniversary, Ohio Democrats warn reproductive rights remains a major issue appeared first on Ohio Capital Journal.