Abortion-rights advocates say the fight to stop voters from protecting access to the procedure looks a lot like the fight to restrict voting rights in general. Many of the same Republican lawmakers who supported laws limiting access to the ballot box also seek to prevent citizen-led drives to enshrine reproductive health care into state constitutions, … Read more
Dark money groups help conceal who is behind the influx of cash and the political agendas of a wealthy donor, group or corporation. For example, without looking into the Concord Fund, a major PWO donor, the average person would not realize its ties to anti-abortion lawyer Leonard Leo – the man who helped pick the … Read more
The new summary sprinkles the anti-abortion phrase “unborn child” throughout, substituting it for “fetus.” It erases all mention of giving people the right to make decisions about their miscarriages, fertility treatments and contraception. Critics have called it “confusing” and “misleading.” Read more at Talking Points Memo
What the Ohio special election results mean for abortion rights For months Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose denied he had switched positions on August special elections because of abortion rights. But in June, video footage reported by News 5 Cleveland and the Ohio Capital Journal showed LaRose admitting abortion was motivating his stance. “Some … Read more
The election that could determine the future of democracy in Ohio In May, Republicans who control the state legislature abruptly sent a proposal to the ballot called Issue 1 that would make it much harder to change the constitution. If approved, a constitutional amendment would need 60% of the vote to pass instead of a … Read more
Multimillion-Dollar ‘Disinformation Campaign’ Seeks To Make Ohio’s Big Abortion Vote About ‘Sex Change’ Operations “There is absolutely nothing in the amendment that mentions or supersedes Ohio’s parental consent laws,” Beene said. “Their intentionally deceptive ad is the beginning of a multi-million-dollar disinformation campaign designed to raise unsubstantiated fears and distract from the fact that the … Read more
National liberal groups have taken up opposing Issue 1, casting it as a back-door attempt to keep abortion rights restricted. “For us, this is the marriage of the fight between the fight against reproductive freedom and the fight against democracy,” said Yasmin Radjy, executive director of the Democratic grassroots organizing group Swing Left. Read more … Read more
Now, this fall and in next year’s election, national liberal groups are planning to invest more heavily in ballot measure campaigns, seeing them as vehicles both to protect access to abortion care and to amplify their broader political message that abortion bans are out of step with voters. ** Anti-abortion activists, in turn, have vowed … Read more
A court recently allowed an August special election to proceed that will allow lawmakers to raise the threshold of all future measures to a 60 percent supermajority. Abortion advocates contend the ballot measure was explicitly designed to make it more difficult for voters to pass their amendment. Read more on The Hill
The Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based group affiliated with the alliance of conservative thinktanks called the State Policy Network, has played a key role in recent efforts to raise the threshold for passing citizen ballot initiatives from a simple majority to a supermajority, and to make it harder to place measures on the ballot … Read more
