Millions of dollars are being funneled into the two Ohio special elections revolving around whether the state will adopt an amendment to prohibit state intervention in abortion and reproductive rights, such as access to contraception.
Advocacy groups on both sides of the abortion debate have been fighting intensely in the lead-up to the first referendum in the series, happening on Tuesday, as to whether to increase the vote share necessary to amend the state constitution from 50% to 60%.
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Tuesday’s vote will have significant implications for the success of the abortion amendment on the ballot in November, which would prevent the state legislature from acting to “directly or indirectly, burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate against” obtaining an abortion or reproductive healthcare.
Mid-year financial reports released this week reveal that Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom raised approximately $8.5 million from various pro-abortion groups, including Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, and Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, or URGE.
The majority of the funds from Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom have been spent so far on certifying the citizen signature results to get the amendment officially on the ballot in November.
Only 25.6% of these donations came from Ohio residents, with the majority coming from Washington D.C., Oklahoma, New York, and other states.
Another, smaller, pro-abortion group, Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, raised $1.16 million, 92.7% of which came from Ohio donors.
Because of the broadness of its language, anti-abortion advocates contend that the amendment would invalidate several existing state laws, including parental consent and safety protocols for conducting abortions. Abortion rights advocates filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Frank LaRose, an anti-abortion Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2024, arguing that the amendment is in violation of state statute because it does not disclose to voters which laws it would invalidate if passed in November.
Leading the opposition to the amendment is Protect Women Ohio, which raised a total of $9.74 million in 2023. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a preeminent national-level anti-abortion organization, donated $6.14 million to PWO, and the Catholic dioceses of Ohio collectively contributed $900,000.
The majority of PWO’s expenses thus far in the election season have television and radio advertisements targeted towards Issue 1, urging voters to increase the difficulty of amending the state constitution to protect from out-of-state political influence in Ohio.
PWO’s most recent advertisement campaign cost the organization $5.5 million and will run through the end of the special election on Tuesday.
“Ohio has some of the weakest requirements in the country for passing constitutional amendments and greedy, out-of-state special interest groups with deep pockets know it,” said PWO board member Molly Smith in a press release. “That makes Ohio a prime target for radical special interest groups, like the ACLU, to parachute into the state and strip parents of their rights. Enough is enough. It’s time to pass Issue 1 and put long overdue, common-sense protections in place.”
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Stephen Billy, vice president for state affairs at SBA Pro-Life America, told reporters last week that Ohio is a test case for national-level pro-abortion groups, who have already started to make similar movements to vote in abortion amendments to state constitutions across the country.
“The stakes could not be higher … They can’t succeed through the legislative process,” noted Billy, especially in Republican-controlled states like Ohio.
