When the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional requirement that state laws respect a minimum level of abortion rights, Justice Samuel Alito loftily declared that it was time to "return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."

In Missouri and other red states, those elected representatives quickly moved to bring the boom down on half their residents, instituting draconian abortion bans that have literally endangered women's lives.

But the people themselves apparently have other ideas.

Ohio on Tuesday became the seventh state in the nation in which voters have taken to the ballot to restore or confirm abortion rights by referendum since last year.

Then the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional requirement that state laws respect a minimum level of abortion rights, Justice Samuel Alito loftily declared that it was time to "return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."

In Missouri and other red states, those elected representatives quickly moved to bring the boom down on half their residents, instituting draconian abortion bans that have literally endangered women's lives.

But the people themselves apparently have other ideas.

Ohio on Tuesday became the seventh state in the nation in which voters have taken to the ballot to restore or confirm abortion rights by referendum since last year.

hen the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional requirement that state laws respect a minimum level of abortion rights, Justice Samuel Alito loftily declared that it was time to "return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."

In Missouri and other red states, those elected representatives quickly moved to bring the boom down on half their residents, instituting draconian abortion bans that have literally endangered women's lives.

But the people themselves apparently have other ideas.

Ohio on Tuesday became the seventh state in the nation in which voters have taken to the ballot to restore or confirm abortion rights by referendum since last year.

Since the Supreme Court's opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in June 2022 ended almost half a century of constitutional protection for abortion rights under Roe, voters in six states (before Tuesday) re-enshrined those rights via the ballot.

In some of them, like California, Vermont and Michigan, those outcomes weren't necessarily surprising. But the list also includes Montana, Kentucky and Kansas — reliably red states whose voters nonetheless declared support for some level of abortion rights.

Ohio joined that pantheon in Tuesday's statewide ballot, with voters passing the state's "Issue 1" ballot initiative by more than 10 percentage points. The measure enshrines in the state's constitution "an individual right to one's own reproductive and medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion," and creates legal protections for anyone assisting with receiving reproductive medical treatment.

It is, in a way, the second time Ohio's voters have taken up the question. In August, they defeated a ballot measure that would have set a 60% approval requirement to pass future referendums — a standard that anti-choice forces pursued in hopes of setting the bar too high for passage of Tuesday's abortion-rights measure.

It's a strategy Missouri's legislative Republicans unsuccessfully pursued here as well this year, in their determination to prop up a state law that prohibits women from having any say over what happens in their own bodies from the moment of conception, even in cases of rape or incest.

At the same time, Missouri's Republican secretary of state, Jay Ashcroft, is still stalling the process of allowing an abortion-rights referendum on the state's ballot next year with a protracted legal fight over his biased and inflammatory proposed ballot language.

As we have argued, this is a blatant, politically driven abuse of Ashcroft's authority, and of the legal process itself. Other Missouri elected officials, including Attorney General Andrew Bailey, have played similarly cynical games in their attempts to block the state's voters from deciding this crucial issue.

It is, in a way, the second time Ohio's voters have taken up the question. In August, they defeated a ballot measure that would have set a 60% approval requirement to pass future referendums — a standard that anti-choice forces pursued in hopes of setting the bar too high for passage of Tuesday's abortion-rights measure.

It's a strategy Missouri's legislative Republicans unsuccessfully pursued here as well this year, in their determination to prop up a state law that prohibits women from having any say over what happens in their own bodies from the moment of conception, even in cases of rape or incest.

At the same time, Missouri's Republican secretary of state, Jay Ashcroft, is still stalling the process of allowing an abortion-rights referendum on the state's ballot next year with a protracted legal fight over his biased and inflammatory proposed ballot language.

As we have argued, this is a blatant, politically driven abuse of Ashcroft's authority, and of the legal process itself. Other Missouri elected officials, including Attorney General Andrew Bailey, have played similarly cynical games in their attempts to block the state's voters from deciding this crucial issue.

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