In Ohio, abortion is very much on the ballot today. The question there is whether or not there's a abortion protections can be enshrined. And so there is wall-to-wall disinformation. We're gonna break down some of this in the Ohio vote today in a moment, but [00:00:15] we also wanna let you know about some of the dirty tricks that are underway. But first of all, Governor Mike DeWine, he says, well, lemme just read this Ohio Issue 1, here's the text. Establish in the Constitution of the state of Ohio an individual right to one's own [00:00:32] 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. Always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, [00:00:51] regardless of viability, if in the treating physician's determination, abortion is necessary to protect the women's life or health. Now, less clear, but clear cut on this is the sort of the ballot language, so no changes are expected related to minors obtaining abortions in the state, [00:01:08] as there's already a legal process for that. Judicial bypass, as it stands now, has been around 2012 in the state after then Governor John Kasich has signed a law that prohibited forcing a minor to have an abortion, but leaves in place a legal way for minors to petition juvenile courts to bypass parental consent. [00:01:25] The legal method uses the court system to allow underage individuals to make decisions for themselves where parental consent would typically be necessary, such as in cases of abuse. All right, well, given all of this, and it's a little bit confusing, let's hear how the state Governor, Mike DeWine, [00:01:41] let's listen to what he had to say about all of this. >> Speaker 2: If you look at Issue 1, it's a radical proposal, and whether you're pro-choice or pro-life, it just goes much, much too far. It would enshrine in our Constitution the right to have an abortion up until birth, [00:01:59] so at any time during the pregnancy. The second thing it would do is really threaten a law that we've had on the books for many years that requires parental consent if we're dealing with a minor. >> Speaker 1: Actually, [LAUGH] that's not what this ballot amendment would do. [00:02:16] But obviously, Mike DeWine, he's got the platform of being governor so he can spin this and mislead people because obviously he's pro-life. And doesn't like the idea that Ohio voters might actually support giving women certain basic rights for their reproductive health and freedom. Now, while lying about ballot measures is nothing new for the Republican Party, [00:02:34] they're using of taxpayer funds to push a certain outcome. Well, that may be, and the Ohio Senate has launched its on-the-record blog in September, describing the page. The only one linked under the official site's news tab is the Chamber's own online newsroom, publishing the views the news excludes. Well, in the weeks leading up to the election, [00:02:51] on the Record has focused its coverage on denouncing Issue 1, publishing articles from state senators that repeat the claims of abortion access outlined in the Protect Women Ohio ad alongside others. One claims the amendment would allow for the dismemberment of fully conscious children, referring to a procedure that the US government banned in 2003. [00:03:10] While another decontextualizes the high rates of abortion among black women to further narrative that the rate is fueled by an evil and predatory abortion industry. Look, with all the confusion, misinformation efforts to try to spin what seems to me a pretty clear-cut effort by voters in Ohio to protect women's rights. [00:03:29] Nonetheless, there has been an incredible sort of surge of early voting, in part driven by this issue of abortion rights and women's rights. Through Sunday, voters had cast 864, 525 ballots, compared to 757,653 who voted early for the entire August election. [00:03:45] The numbers include the 79,388 people who voted early and in person on Saturday and Sunday during the state's first and only weekend hours for early in-person voting. Adrienne a couple of things to pick apart here, first of all, the use of taxpayer funds, whether, even if it's a blog, [00:04:02] to spread misinformation about a ballot issue. Could there be some legal vulnerability with that? >> Speaker 3: Not likely the case, especially if it's something that member of the government did. But it does speak to how insidious a lot of these efforts to get people to continue [00:04:22] to subscribe to your ideology, that you have to swindle them, you have to lie to them and misrepresent what the laws are in order to get people to back them. That's not democracy, and that's not how it should work. If anything, that's an admission of the fact that you should not be in a position [00:04:40] to represent that body of people. And the thing that I would think about Ohio right now is that they had all of the controversy and all the headlines about the ten year old girl who was raped and became pregnant and had to go to Indiana for an abortion. And so Ohio is doing everything it can in terms of its leadership to say don't [00:04:57] worry, we have situations like this covered, and it's really not a problem. But really it is, given the language that they are choosing for the proposed legislation. >> Speaker 1: [INAUDIBLE] An individual right to one's own reproductive medical [00:05:13] treatment, including but not limited to abortion, I think if you would poll people on that without sort of all of the distractions and without all the false ads and without all the false blogs. And when that has been polled across the United States, 80% of American people support that. Well, when they're then told that you're now supporting abortion rights, [00:05:30] maybe it drops a little bit. But most people who are even pro-life, even most people who are pro-life say. I may be opposed to abortion personally, but I do believe that in the state constitution or in the federal Constitution, there should be a right for a woman to choose what's best for her between her and her doctor. [00:05:49] And again, that's essentially what Ohio was trying to do. And then this Text 1, this article 1, is also trying to make sure that the state cannot throw up all sorts of roadblocks. So it'll be interesting to see how this goes. As we've seen, though, in previous elections, abortion, at least ever since [00:06:06] the Supreme Court in the Dobbs decision got rid of Roe versus Wade. Every single ballot measure, every single election that has been about should there be a constitutional amendment banning abortion, should there be something supporting abortion rights has always won. And that's in part because I think the polling is so clear and dominant on this [00:06:24] issue that people recognize that abortion rights, women's rights are under fire. And even for Republicans, moderate Republicans, it's even some pro-life folks, they believe this should be a woman's right to choose. So my prediction is that, as has happened in Ohio, [00:06:39] think there was another issue in Ohio a year ago. I have a feeling that the people supporting Text 1 are gonna be successful, and this will be enshrined in the Ohio Constitution. But we'll see what the voters decide, and we'll have, of course, some results that we can analyze. [MUSIC]