Abortion messaging roils debate over Ohio ballot initiative. Backers said it wasn't about that - WTOP News

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

64% : "We're seeing special sessions, we're seeing anti-abortion bills passed in the dead of night, and we're seeing these denials from those who are pushing a measure that is designed to undercut democracy with the intention of hurting Ohio's abortion measure."
52% :Mark Caleb Smith, a political science professor at southwest Ohio's Cedarville University, said abortion is emotionally charged and easy to understand -- and can therefore engage Ohioans to donate, volunteer and vote when they otherwise wouldn't bother with an off-season election about something as esoteric as how to amend the state's constitution.
47% :That two-track approach is reflected in the pro-Issue 1 campaign's first statewide ad, which debuted Monday and steers clear of abortion.
47% : "While abortion is on the ballot right now, minimum wage is on the ballot next," she said.
46% : Amendments protecting access to abortion in other states have typically passed -- but with less than 60% of the vote.
43% : AP VoteCast polling last year found 59% of Ohio voters say abortion should generally be legal.
42% : Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue, said on a radio show this month that his organization is only connecting Issue 1 to abortion with certain segments of Ohio voters.
41% : "They need to be able to talk about abortion to hold a certain part of their coalition together, but it's not a political winner at this time for them to stick to a hard-line abortion argument."Issue 1 supporters' conversations in more targeted settings reflect that duality.
40% : The fraught politics of abortion have helped turn an August ballot question in Ohio that would make it harder to change the state constitution into a cauldron of misinformation and fear-mongering.
40% : Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, an advocacy group, said she believes Issue 1 supporters are playing down abortion in their statewide messaging because they know public opinion isn't on their side.said she believes Issue 1 supporters are playing down abortion in their statewide messaging because they know public opinion isn't on their side.
39% :While the ad is based in fears that the U.S. Supreme Court could limit rights to at-home contraception and Issue 1 would make it harder to enshrine those in Ohio's state constitution, "the direct, immediate issue is abortion," said Susan Burgess, a political science professor at Ohio University.
39% : "When we go up on TV, is the ad going to be on abortion?
34% : "We're seeing more and more legislators and opponents of abortion who understand that their agenda is extremely unpopular with the American people," she said.
32% : Democrat Teresa Fedor, a former state lawmaker who championed Ohio's sex trafficking crackdown in the legislature, said she didn't find a prominent connection between sex trafficking and forced abortion during her 20 years working on the issue.

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