After setback, antiabortion forces struggle before key Ohio vote

[sl8]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/29/ohio-issue-1-election-abortion/

After setback, antiabortion forces struggle before key Ohio vote

By Annie Gowen
October 29, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

CINCINNATI — Students hoping to get others to vote “no” on an upcoming Ohio amendment to ensure abortion rights took the soft approach at a recent event at the University of Cincinnati.

The signs in their booth were alarmist — “Late-Term Abortion is on the Ballot” — but the young “Students for Life” advocates opted for a moderate appeal as they stopped students hurrying back and forth to class.

“We’re not voting necessarily today on whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice,” Kristin Drummond, 19, a medical science major from Kentucky, told one freshman who said she favored abortion rights. “This is about whether or not this amendment is something we should have, because it’s very extreme.”

Three months after a failed attempt by abortion opponents to make it harder to amend the state constitution, Ohioans will head to the polls again Nov. 7 to decide whether to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution. Early voting is already underway, television ads are proliferating and millions in political money is flowing into Ohio. The amendment’s backers have outraised the antiabortion side, but together they have spent more than $40 million on television advertising and other expenses so far, campaign records show.

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[Marthe48]

1. Women's rights are on the ballot

Reproductive rights are the tip of the iceberg. For 50 years, women were gaining autonomy, not just for their personal finances, family life and reproductive choices, but also becoming less like objects and more like living, breathing people.
Women don't need to be bossed by anyone. If it takes a state constitutional amendment to make the point, then we need to pass that amendment.
If the amendment fails, it isn't just reproductive rights. Women will once again become chattel, at the mercy of men soliciting them for sex, either with or without marriage, targets of men who think they can take what they want without asking, without respect. As employees, women will have to accept less pay, less benefits, less recognition. The road we're on is bumpy, but with more signage, we'll get where we need to be.
The antiabortionists don't give a damn about the zygote, if they even know what that is. No, control of born women is the goal here. If we go down the slippery slope, at some point men will lose their freedom to have sex outside of marriage, because the people behind antiabortion movements are not comfortable with their own bodies and their own needs and want to impose their sick worldview on everyone else. I don't know how many people here are old enough to remember that if you were caught having sex and you weren't married, you could be arrested. In the U.S. prostitutes could be arrested, and there was some talk of arresting the men who solicited them. Being a pragmatic country, sex for money was regulated, if not legalized. Do we really want to go back to that kind of world? Or maybe go back even further, when women joined the nunnery to avoid the worldly alternatives?

[yankee87]

4. Powerful

What a powerful essay.

[Marthe48]

5. Thank you

The magic words that will change things: GOTV!

[Hope22]

2. It's been a battle.

900K + donated by the Catholic Diocese to spread the lies! Enough is enough! Extreme is not about giving women control over their health and medical care. Extreme is giving politicians the power to legislate medical care decisions and forcing women to shoulder the emotional and financial burden of rape and pregnancies that may endanger their lives. Vote Yes for the safety and future of women, children and families!💗🙏🏼

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Here's wishing them more setbacks. nt