OHIO (WTRF) – 7NEWS is your Local Election Headquarter, and next Tuesday, Ohio voters will decide the future of abortion in the Buckeye State.
If Issue 1 passes, it would prevent the government from restricting abortions up until the moment of fetal viability, typically about 22-24 weeks. It also gives the pregnant woman’s treating physician the authority to allow abortions past that, if the physician determines an abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.
This deference given to doctors is causing many critics of Issue 1 to argue that it would technically allow for tax-funded abortions at any stage of pregnancy.
Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance, who is not a supporter of Issue 1, says it goes far beyond the old adage of “safe, legal and rare.”
“I think that where we’re going to end up as a country is where most of the rest of the world has ended up, where, you know, there are some accommodations for abortion. There are some exceptions and so forth, and that’s where things end up. And that’s, by the way, not where I want things to end up. I’m a pro-life person, but I think that’s where most people kind of split the difference here.”
Sen. JD Vance, R-OH
Vance thinks if Ohioans want to change the law, they should do it via the state legislature, as opposed to enshrining Issue 1 into the State Constitution.
He argues that makes it easier to change if public sentiment ever turns against it.
