liberal, out of state voters. republicans got millions of dollars from east coast donors, like susan b. anthony pro life america, a washington-based anti-abortion super pac. in june, ohio secretary of state who is running for the republican u.s. senate nomination for the chance to face off against incumbent democratic senator sherrod brown told supporters that issue 1 is 100% about keeping radical pro abortion amendment out of our constitution despite majority support for it. so, just to be clear, the polling says most ohioans want that amendment in the constitution. nearly 60% of them do. but it s the rest of what he said that was a hm moment for me. the other side prevailed. this is just one battle in a much larger war, though. because the all-out assault on ohio is coming from the radical left. i mean, look at the tech billionaires from california and
voters will decide whether they can still amend the state constitution with just a simple majority. that s the way it s been since fillmore s presidency. buthrepublican state house wants to changthat by requiring amendments to get 60% of the vote. instead 50% plus one of the vote. why now? one reason is acss to abortion. that s one. it s not on the ballot today, but it will be in november. and raising ththreshold will make it harder to pass an abortion rights amendment. still some republicans say this is about protecting the state from special interests. but, if you think summertime special election in an off year with no candidates on the ballot would have a low voter turnout, look at these lines. more than half million ohioans have cast early ballots. john, i give this back to you. this is about not just the special interest but abortion. your view on what we re watching
traction that would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution, republicans in the state reversed course and scheduled the special election that is taking place as we speak. so now this august election republicans were trying to doom the reproductive rights bill on the ballot by enacting issue 1 which would raise the threshold for support raised to pass state constitutional amendments to 60% instead of a simple majority. it s a measure republicans have openly admitted is about stopping the upcoming abortion rights amendment. a perfect example of if you can t win the game just change the rules. if you need more proof about why they want to raise the threshold to 60%, take a look, in recent polling which shows support for adding an abortion rights amendment to the state s constitution is at, yeah, 58%. november s proposed amendment would counter ohio s heartbeat bill which bans abortions after
in november, ohio voters will decide whether to enshrine abortion access. more than enough talent signatures were submitted yesterday to get it on the general ballot but now proponents, republican lawmakers are trying to make it difficult for opponents to amend the constitution and have added their own to next month special election which will raise the threshold to 60% support instead of a simple majority. early voting on that initiative already is underway. susan paige, you are writing about this and how this may very well be a bellwether for the rest of the country. take us through some of the numbers. this enjoys support, the abortion rights amendment enjoys popular support but will it make it through the statehouse in ohio? we have had overwhelming support by 26 percentage points. people in ohio support this
joining that list. abortion through about initiative that would let voters decide in november whether abortion rights should be state law. but state republicans blocked the measure, stating, setting it up for a showdown in michigan s supreme court. my next guest joined me to discuss the cross-country battle over abortion rights. msnbc contributor and nyu law professor, and faculty director of the burn bomb woman s leadership, network melissa murray. joined by university of california irvine law professor, and on the issues podcast host michele goodwin. she is also the author of policing the womb: invisible woman and the criminalization of motherhood. thank you all for joining me. melissa, i want to begin with you. activists in michigan collected 750,000 signatures in order to get the abortion rights amendment on to the november ballot. that far exceeded the 425,000 signatures it actually needed to qualify. but the measure was still blocked. what needs to happen for