I’m a wreck. It’s hard to think, hard to concentrate, hard to do anything at all. Life here is crazy. For me, there’s a frenzied, all-or-nothing vibe in the air right now. For other people in the state who aren’t as concerned about women’s reproductive rights, perhaps this is just another inconvenient, noisy election season of door-to-door canvassers and yard signs popping up like mushrooms after a spring rain.
What’s at stake is bodily autonomy of the most basic kind. Issue 1, if passed, will enshrine a constitutional right to abortion in Ohio. So I care. I care because I’m a woman, a feminist, and I’ve carved out a life here. It isn’t a perfect life, but it’s mine and I’ve come to terms with it. But some things, like access to abortion, are non-negotiable. Abortion is personal. It gets me right where I live.
I’ve been furious ever since the Supreme Court invalidated Roe v. Wade two years ago, leaving the issue of abortion up to state legislatures to hash out. I don’t know what to do with my rage except vote and try to change things. On Tuesday — tomorrow — people in the Buckeye state will once again be asked where they stand on abortion. If Issue 1 passes, people will have the right “to carry out reproductive decisions” when it comes to conception, fertility, and yes, abortion, up to about 22 weeks, or the viability of the fetus outside the uterus.
The state, the cops, the lawyers, the judges, the clergy, and your nosy next-door neighbors will have to butt out when it comes to personal, private decisions about human reproduction. If Issue 1 doesn’t pass, a draconian law banning abortion at six weeks is very likely to be implemented. This is why so many people are going out of their minds. If Ohio’s “Heartbeat Bill” becomes law, it’s going to be The Handmaid’s Tale all over again.
In 2019 Ohio passed such a law, Senate Bill 23, making abortion illegal after six weeks, even in cases of rape or incest. Pro-choice rights groups sued and a few months later, a judge temporarily blocked the law from taking effect. Now abortion is before the voters again. Legal experts say this hotly debated vote is one of the most important in state history.
I’ve lived in Ohio for nineteen years, and I’ve witnessed the way politics work here, from unfair gerrymandering to dirty energy scandals to a GOP-controlled General Assembly hostile to women’s rights. In September, Frank LaRose, the Republican Secretary of State, sneakily purged the registrations of 26,000 voters two weeks before the deadline to vote. The timing is highly suspect. Many people have cried foul, including Kayla Griffin, of the voting rights group All Voting is Local.
“We are disappointed in the secretary of state’s office’s authorization of the voter purge while voting for the November election was already (and still is) underway,” Griffin said in The Guardian on Monday
Issue 1 opponents assert that the amendment is dangerous because it will outlaw basic health and safety protections for women, erode parental rights, and allow for abortion right up until delivery. There is no language about any of those things in the amendment. Here’s the full text of the Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety, Issue 1.
One lawn sign in particular opposing Issue 1 makes me see red. It says: “No Issue 1: Protect children.” Protect children? Oh, please.
Do you remember the account of the 10-year-old girl, a child, who was raped and impregnated by her attacker in the summer of 2022? (It was during this frightening window of time, 82 days, to be exact, that the restrictive six-week ban was in effect.) She had to cross the state line and go to Indiana to obtain an abortion because she was three days past the six-week limit. Three days. Imagine: you’re ten years old, your mom’s boyfriend has raped and impregnated you, and you’re in the middle of a bewildering political and legal shitstorm. What happened was so shocking that some people had trouble believing it really happened.
Ohio State Attorney Dave Yost doubted the veracity of the girl’s story, telling Fox News host Jesse Watters that his office had not heard “a whisper” about the crime.
The girl’s attacker, Gerson Fuentes, 28, confessed to the rape after detectives brought him to police headquarters for a saliva test. This past summer he was sentenced to life in prison.
Did Yost apologize or express regret for publicly doubting the girl’s story after learning he’d been wrong? “My heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child,” he piously opined. “I am grateful for the diligent work of the Columbus Police Department in securing a confession and getting a rapist off the street.”
Somehow, I doubt his sincerity. And it’s deja vu all over again. This is the second time I’ve been asked to vote on Issue 1. Three months ago, a different ballot measure with the very same name—Issue 1—was put before the voters. In a special election this past August, the Ohio General Assembly, where Republicans have a supermajority, asked voters if the threshold for a simple majority vote on amendments should be increased. Right now a majority vote is 50 percent plus one; the state legislature asked whether it should be increased to 60 percent. The latter would’ve made it harder for citizen-led efforts to alter the state constitution. Voters rejected the proposal by a vote of 57 percent to 43 percent. But to have to do it all over again — vote on a very different issue that happens to have the same name, is confusing to some voters.
I don’t think that confusion is an accident.
I have a hard trouble with anger, especially my own. I always have. I don’t like to feel angry. It’s a powerful, scary feeling that is no fun at all. But I have to say it: deep down, I’m angry. Not just pissed off, but deeply, righteously furious.
This is America. I know the rules and I understand the process. Tomorrow, one more time, I’m going to march my anger, my unruly, painful, disturbing, energizing anger, right into the voting booth, and I’m going to say, hell yes.
Yes on Issue 1. Protect the children. Protect the women. Protect the families.
And after the smoke clears, we’ll see what happens.
Ohio has spoken! And how!!! Gives me hope of the future.
Bravo! Bravo, D'Arcy! You speak for millions of us, I know: "...deep down, I’m angry. Not just pissed off, but deeply, righteously furious...." Love the title too. (How do you come up with these kinds of things?!)