--- title: Ohio Votes to Protect Abortion Access in State Constitution description: Ohio’s voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing an individual right to abortion and other kinds of reproductive health care. canonical: https://time.com/6332769/ohio-abortion-rights-amendment-passes/ author: Sanya Mansoor article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-11-08T02:21:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T16:39:05.014Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ohio Votes to Protect Abortion Access in State Constitution og:description: Ohio’s voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing an individual right to abortion and other kinds of reproductive health care. og:url: https://time.com/6332769/ohio-abortion-rights-amendment-passes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaeb929b52d0325e5/698a420e9d83e8c485b97db1/GettyImages-1769087463.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Ohioans Vote On Measure To Establish Constitutional Right To Abortion og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ohio Votes to Protect Abortion Access in State Constitution twitter:description: Ohio’s voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing an individual right to abortion and other kinds of reproductive health care. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaeb929b52d0325e5/698a420e9d83e8c485b97db1/GettyImages-1769087463.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ohio Votes to Protect Abortion Access in Major Statewide Victory for Reproductive Rights > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Sanya Mansoor](https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/)  ## Sanya Mansoor Nov 8, 2023 2:21 AM UTC  An Issue 1 campaign sign outside a polling location in Toledo, Ohio, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. An Issue 1 campaign sign outside a polling location in Toledo, Ohio, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. Emily Elconin—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Sanya Mansoor](https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/)  ## Sanya Mansoor Nov 8, 2023 2:21 AM UTC On Tuesday, Ohio’s voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing an individual right to abortion and other kinds of reproductive health care. Issue One [put Ohio at the center of the nation’s abortion battle](https://time.com/6300071/ohio-abortion-ballot-initiative/) after the U.S. Supreme Court [overturned _Roe v. Wade_](https://time.com/6189476/abortion-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade/) last year. Tuesday’s victory for abortion rights means that the state’s proposed ban on abortions after about six weeks cannot go into effect. Now, abortions will be allowed until viability, which was the standard under _Roe_. (Abortions after that time could only be considered if the treating physician considers the abortion “necessary to protect the pregnant woman's life or health.”) The results, called by the Associated Press, are a huge win for abortion rights in one of the year's most closely-watched votes. The outcome doesn’t “change the law on the ground immediately but it will have huge implications for what comes next,” says Chris Devine, an associate professor of political science at the University of Dayton. Democrats may now look to the use of the citizen ballot initiative in Ohio as a reliable tactic to protect abortion rights. Six states had abortion-related measures on the ballot in 2022; all six were victories for abortion-rights advocates, including those in more conservative states such as [Kansas](https://time.com/6203178/kansas-abortion-vote-results-takeaways/) and Kentucky. “We've had lots of abortion ballot initiatives in conservative states prevail but they've all been narrower questions,” says Mary Ruth Ziegler, law professor at UC Davis. Ohio is “a good litmus test for how far a ballot initiative strategy can go.” “What it suggests is that voters in a lot of conservative states are not as far to the right on abortion as their state lawmakers,” Ziegler adds. Gabriel Mann, a spokesperson for Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, says the campaign was inspired by victories for abortion-rights advocates in Kentucky and Michigan. “It really showed that this is a midwestern value…that it’s possible to pass this here,” he says. In the lead-up to the vote, Republicans [attempted to make it more difficult](https://time.com/6303738/republicans-lessons-ohio-abortion-issue-1/) to pass a constitutional amendment in the state. After that failed, [abortion rights supporters took issue](https://time.com/6331026/ohio-issue-1-abortion-wording/) with how the Ohio Ballot Board summarized their proposed amendment. The text refers to an “unborn child,” instead of a “fetus”—leading them to argue that the wording was biased. But a majority of voters still voted in favor of the amendment on Tuesday, which now will enshrine in the state constitution “an individual right to one’s own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion.” The controversy may not be over.Conservatives fear the “including but not limited to” phrasing could open the door up to mean gender-affirming care. “Issue One is really a wolf in sheep's clothing,” says Mark Weaver, a Republican strategist. Campaign organizers denied any attempt to address gender-affirming care. “Issue One is a single issue subject that directly addresses reproductive care,” says Mann. Despite victory at the polls, abortion rights advocates are expecting legislative challenges about the amendment’s language. “That’s not going to end the fight,” Mann says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6332769/ohio-abortion-rights-amendment-passes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6332769/ohio-abortion-rights-amendment-passes/"},"headline":"Ohio Votes to Protect Abortion Access in Major Statewide Victory for Reproductive Rights","datePublished":"2023-11-08T02:21:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T16:39:05.014Z","description":"It was another statewide victory for reproductive rights.","url":"https://time.com/6332769/ohio-abortion-rights-amendment-passes/","keywords":["abortion","News","uspoliticspolicy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaeb929b52d0325e5/698a420e9d83e8c485b97db1/GettyImages-1769087463.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sanya Mansoor","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaeb929b52d0325e5/698a420e9d83e8c485b97db1/GettyImages-1769087463.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ohioans Vote On Measure To Establish Constitutional Right To Abortion","caption":"Ohioans Vote On Measure To Establish Constitutional Right To Abortion","creditText":"Emily Elconin—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/abortion/","name":"abortion"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6332769/ohio-abortion-rights-amendment-passes/","name":"Ohio Votes to Protect Abortion Access in Major Statewide Victory for Reproductive Rights"}}]}] ```