Some good news before you lay your head down to sleep

Voters in Ohio, by a margin of 3 to 2, rejected a Republican-supported amendment to the state constitution that would have made it much harder to pass constitutional amendments in the future. The vote was a major victory for pro-abortion forces in the state who have gathered enough signatures to put a constitutional amendment protecting women’s control over their own reproductive health decisions on the November ballot. The proposed amendment would also allow doctors to make decisions regarding the medical need for abortions without interference from the state and restrict the state from banning the procedure before a fetus becomes viable outside the womb.

The amendment defeated today would have raised the number of votes needed to pass a constitutional amendment to 60 percent, putting the November vote on the abortion amendment in doubt. With a 3 to 2 margin in today’s vote, it’s pretty clear that Ohio will become another Kansas, a red state that votes to enshrine a woman’s right to choose in its constitution.

After Roe v Wade was overturned last year, Ohio passed strict laws concerning abortion, banning the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, a time when most women are not even aware that they are pregnant. That law will be ended by the expected vote in November, replacing it with a constitutional amendment that will give women and their doctors complete control over reproductive health of women.

To say that the vote today is a positive bellwether for the upcoming presidential election in 2024 is to grossly understate the case. The issue of abortion is turning into a nightmare for the Republican Party which has used it as a wedge in elections for nearly 50 years. Defendant Trump and other Republican presidential candidates have run for office promising to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe v Wade.

Well, they succeeded, and now that promise has come back to bite them in the proverbial ass.