COLUMBUS, Ohio — In a blow to abortion opponents in Ohio, a fall ballot issue aimed at enshrining access to the procedure in state's constitution will not be split into two separate issues — one about abortion, and one about other reproductive healthcare.
A decision the other way would have invalidated the groups' statewide efforts so far, forcing them to go back to the drawing board and collect new signatures, and twice as many. In a concurring opinion by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, three justices disagreed on the legal basis for determining the board did not abuse its discretion. She wrote that the question “is not whether the proposed amendment has a single subject, purpose, or object. Rather, it is whether the proposal is a single amendment” — which, in this case, it is.