In another bid to overturn Ohio’s abortion rights amendment, opponents claim the changes that voters approved in 2023 are invalid because they weren’t made via a constitutional convention.
More than two years ago, Ohioans amended the state constitution to protect access to abortion and other reproductive rights with 57% of the vote. Since then, lawsuits have focused on challenging Ohio’s abortion bans and limits. But now, two lawsuits from abortion opponents are trying to overturn the voter-approved protections.
One lawsuit, filed by a Trumbull County judge, claims the amendment restricts his ability to grant or deny minors’ abortions. Another, filed in Butler County earlier this month, alleges that abortion rights proponents couldn’t amend the state constitution with a ballot measure alone.
“The enemy overplayed their hand,” Janet Porter, the author of Ohio’s most restrictive abortion ban, said about the Butler County lawsuit. “What you have to do if you’re going to change multiple portions of the Constitution, you’ve got to have a constitutional convention. They didn’t do that.”
Attorney Jessie Hill, who defends abortion providers, said the legal theory makes no sense.
“Ohioans amended the constitution according to the procedures laid out in the Ohio Constitution,” Hill said. “Some folks are being sore losers.”
Ohio held its fourth and most recent constitutional convention in 1912, when it approved the citizen initiative and referendum process. The changes were approved to “supplement representative democracy and to get around what many believed were unresponsive and even corrupt state legislatures,” according to a Cleveland State Law Review article.
Since then, Ohio voters have approved dozens of amendments to the Ohio Constitution, including the abortion rights measure in 2023.
Despite this, Republican Reps. Levi Dean and Jennifer Gross, along with Lebanon City Council Member Kristen Eggers, filed the lawsuit in Butler County Common Pleas Court on May 5. They sued Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser to block them from enforcing the amendment.
The lawsuit also claims the amendment violates “natural law” and was bankrolled by an overwhelming amount of out-of-state dark money.
Yost’s office has not yet responded to the Butler County lawsuit. Yost’s office did ask the Ohio Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit from Trumbull County Judge David Engler, saying that he didn’t have the authority to sue, and even if he did, the Ohio Constitution trumps state law.
State government reporter Jessie Balmert can be reached at jbalmert@usatodayco.com or @jbalmert on X.
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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Butler County lawsuit tries to overturn Ohio abortion rights amendment
Reporting by Jessie Balmert, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
