Once organizers decided what form Issue One would take, they needed to finalize the ballot language.  

Firsich recalled the emphasis placed on the amendment’s language because organizers wanted to avoid certain aspects of reproductive healthcare, like contraception, from being excluded from the initiative. 

The finalized version of the initiative protected an individual’s right to reproductive care, including abortion, miscarriage care, contraception and more. It also allowed for late-term abortions in necessary cases, though there was a controversy over the wording of that provision.  

On the ballot, the last section of the amendment stated it would, “Always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability if, in the treating physician’s determination, the abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.”  

Firsich said the language approved by the Ohio Secretary of State implied the amendment would allow late-term abortions, even in non-emergency situations.  

With the language decided, the race to the polls was on.  

All hands on deck: Volunteers organized to get Issue One on the ballot

To get Issue One officially on the ballot, organizers needed to collect a number of valid signatures equal to a certain percentage of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election from 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties. 

Natalie Johnson, an advocacy strategist for the ACLU of Ohio, was one of those organizers collecting signatures in southeast Ohio. Despite southeast Ohio’s traditionally Republican population, Johnson said voters in Morgan and Jackson counties turned out in droves in support of Issue One.  

“Southeast Ohio is a healthcare desert in general, not just an abortion care desert, so ... when you're talking about health care that affects people's lives, people have lived experience,” she said. “Just because, on the voting map, people look like they vote more red in this area does not mean that the same things aren't affecting their daily lives, and I think maybe even more so because of the fact they have much less access than people who might live in urban areas due to this health care.” 

Johnson said some of her most active volunteers were older women who remembered the state of reproductive healthcare pre-Roe.  

“They all had spoken stories of ... coat hanger abortions happening in alleys,” Johnson said.  

Born in 1963, Dr. Patty Stokes, a women’s, gender and sexuality studies professor at Ohio University, does not share those memories, but does remember having her own conflicting thoughts about abortion, until she had two pregnancy scares. As a college freshman, Stokes recalled her first scare with her then-boyfriend. Looking back, she said this experience played a key role in her changing her views on abortion.  

“It moved me from thinking this is not just a matter of you know what kind of personal decision one might want to make,” Stokes said. “So having gone through that, that's what really then cemented that theoretical political position to one that I was like, ‘Yeah,’ and not only is it political conviction, I would feel okay choosing that for myself.” 

Throughout her adolescent and adult life, Stokes watched the pendulum swing both ways when it came to reproductive rights and remembered watching her students get involved in the issue, too. 

“Quite possibly some of my students knew people who needed an abortion and couldn't get one, or had to travel for it more likely,” she said. “They did their part in just kind of helping to raise awareness.” 

After more than a year of planning to get the amendment on the ballot, Issue One passed with 57% of the vote, an astounding number for Ohio.  

Despite this success, the fight for reproductive freedom did not end with Issue One. New proposed pieces of legislation are constantly trying to limit people’s access to abortion, despite Issue One still being in effect.  

Just a few months ago, House Bill 370 was introduced in the Ohio Statehouse. The bill would completely ban abortions and left the future of contraception and fertilization methods up in the air.  

The conservative Christian group End Abortion Ohio is a supporter of the bill aiming to repeal Issue One, which critics say would ignore the public’s votes.   

The organization’s founder, Austin Biegel, said in this case, overturning the will of the people is necessary.  

“Everyone throughout the state will acknowledge throughout history, the will of the people has been evil at certain times. There have been states that desired slavery. This is the purpose of law is to restrain people’s desire for evil. ... We think that is the purpose of the law is to restrain people’s evil hearts,” Biegel said.  

"We're kind of in the fight of our lives right now."

H.B. 370 is also controversial for another reason: it argues for the right of fetal personhood,  

The bill utilizes the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause to justify legal personhood beginning at conception and ending at death.  

The text of the bill states it aims to, “fulfill that constitutional requirement by protecting the lives of preborn persons with the same criminal and civil laws protecting the lives of born persons by repealing provisions that permit willful prenatal homicide or assault.”  

Fetal personhood is a complicated issue to legally institute and can have potential implications for contraception and in vitro fertilization, where ovaries are fertilized by sperm in a lab and then implanted into the uterus to develop during a pregnancy.  

Biegel dispelled claims that H.B. 370 would abolish IVF, though he acknowledged it would likely change the procedure.  

 “As far as the bill itself goes, it will force those legal conversations of, you know, are you allowed to take a person and stick them in a freezer and stop them from aging for an unknown amount of period?” he said. “The courts are going to have to sift through a lot of those arguments, but it's not an IVF ban. It will alter the industry and hopefully move it towards a more moral way of functioning.” 

The bill has been introduced in the Ohio Statehouse and is currently in the House Judiciary Committee.  

With potential legislation like H.B. 370 on the table, Firsich said it is more important than ever for people to understand that the fight for reproductive rights did not end with Issue One’s passage. 

“Issue One was not the end all be all. ... The attacks have not stopped. If anything, they’ve increased in some ways,” she said.   

Firsich also emphasized that Ohio is often the first state people seeking reproductive healthcare can reach, as more states restrict abortion access.  

“The American South and Midwest have essentially gone dark on abortion rates, on abortion access. Imagine how far some people are traveling to get really essential health care, and that massive increase takes a huge toll on our medical infrastructure, on the people that are seeking access. ... We are helping all these surrounding states at the same time that we are trying to maintain these rights for Ohioans,” Firsich said.  

Despite this, Firsich said it is importance voters remain active and up to date on the debate surrounding reproductive rights. 

"We’re just trying to make it very clear to people that we’re kind of in the fight of our lives right now.”