politics

We legalized marijuana too!

I don’t smoke weed and I don’t have a uterus, but I voted to protect both and I’m glad we won!

Issue 1 covers so much more than just Abortion.

From the ballot:

• Establish in the Constitution of the State of Ohio an individual right to one’s own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion.
• Create legal protections for any person or entity that assists a person with receiving reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion.
• Prohibit the State from directly or indirectly burdening, penalizing, or prohibiting abortion before an unborn child is determined to be viable, unless the State demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means.
• Grant a pregnant woman’s treating physician the authority to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether an unborn child is viable.
• Only allow the State to prohibit an abortion after an unborn child is determined by a pregnant woman’s treating physician to be viable and only if the physician does not consider the abortion necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.
• Always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability if, in the treating physician’s determination, the abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.

This is a Freedom of Speech type amendment that centers around a person's reproductive rights. In that this amendment prohibits the Ohio State government from passing any law that restricts a person's reproductive rights except in special cases under strict scrutiny. So this goes way pass just abortion. Additionally, it grants doctors benefit of the doubt protections that would have strict scrutiny bars for the State to overcome, an incredibly high evidentiary bar for the State to overcome.

To just say this protects abortion is really missing the forest for the tree. Yeah, it protects abortion but additionally it protects everything related to reproductive rights (contraception, IVF, etc) and sets a massive barrier for the State to later meddle. This is a massive win for not those seeking abortion but for everyone who cheers reproductive protection and Government non-intervention in such matters.

I could actually cry right now, what a fucking relief

When Kansas and then Ohio thoroughly shoot holes in your platform and you're the dominant party in those places, maybe you should start re-thinking your platform.

Issue 2, legalizing recreational marijuana for people over 21, is also projected to pass.

And this is after they tried very very hard to rig the election to put obstacles in the way of people voting for the measure.

Actually getting abortion bans in place is the "dog that caught the car" moment for Republicans. The world is so complicated and people have so little attention to spare, that the GOP can get away with blaming "the economy" or "jobs" or "crime" on the Democrats, and for the most part, people who support them will go with it, even though they spend most of their time being in power making the problems worse and stealing money for themselves and their friends.

Abortion is dead simple. If people know someone who's suffering in a terrifying way, and it's because of something the Republicans have been banging their fists on the table about how bad they want to do it for the last fifty years, it becomes a lot harder to shift the blame.

Edit: I backwards

As a Michigander this is physically painful to say... but you done good Ohio.

Anyone else notice how the "why do you want to kill babies" crowd has fallen mostly silent on these posts? It's almost like they never had any real horse in this race, and now that most of them aren't being paid to stir people up they've got nothing to say.

FUCK YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! This is some great fucking news for everyone with more then a single braincell.

The right wing fought SO HARD to prevent his from happening.

But it's not like the loss is going to do anything to change their beliefs or actions.

Fuck yeah! You love to see it!! I was a poll worker today and the turnout was incredible. I obviously don't know who voted for what but it was great to see.

Good.

Get scared repubs. Maybe there is a pendulum.

I am from another country. I have to say that in your movies and shows they have always painted Ohio as being a backwards state. I guess that this goes to show that everything changes. Now Ohio seems to be more civilized than a lot of other states that were the "modern" standard. I love change, it's so refreshing to see new generations at last making a change statewide.

This is wonderful! It's a great day when the voice of justice for the people can cancel out unrepresentative government!

This is also a great example of why federal referendums would be a game changer. Thanks to gerrymandering, an enormous incumbent advantage and an even bigger incumbent PARTY advantage, most politicians in Washington tend to be a decade or two behind their constituents on most issues, if not in a completely different world. Asking voters directly could shake that up.

Sadly, it would probably require a constitutional amendment which is already de facto impossible BEFORE you take into account that most people in Congress would be against it, but a guy can dream!

It's being sold as abortion rights, but the language is pretty broad and supports everyone's reproductive rights. Yay human rights!

Nice job, Ohio!

Shout-out to this article for putting the percentage in the article/headline.

I read two different articles and none of them included the 57% number.

Ohio still sucks but at least passing through will be bearable now

Fuck yes! I’m so proud of us