Abortion rights are an election winner

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Ohio has joined a growing number of states where voters have smartly responded to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade by building abortion access protection into their state constitutions.

Ohio's "Issue 1" ballot measure actually goes far beyond access to abortion. It properly declares an individual's right to "make and carry out one's own reproductive decisions," which include birth control, fertility treatments and miscarriage.

Since the Supreme Court's decision to send the issue back to the states, six have put abortion on the ballot. Abortion rights have prevailed every time. Ohio becomes the seventh state, sending the clearest signal yet that a majority of voters are done with attempted government control over reproduction.

Abortion, in fact, is proving a strong motivator even when it's not specifically on the ballot. In conservative Kentucky, voters re-elected Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who was outspoken about criticizing his opponent's stand supporting a near ban on abortions, without exceptions even for rape or incest.

Virginia Democrats took control of the both chambers in that state, openly campaigning on abortion rights. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin had campaigned heavily for voters to give him a GOP-controlled legislature that would support his proposed 15-week abortion ban. When control of the General Assembly became evident, Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke issued a triumphant statement that said "It's official: there will be absolutely no abortion ban legislation sent to Glenn Youngkin's desk for the duration of his term in office, period, as we have thwarted MAGA Republicans' attempt to take total control of our government and our bodies."

U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., a longtime champion of reproductive rights who once led the regional Planned Parenthood, said she is not surprised by the success of state ballot measures. "Shocker. When you give people a choice between keeping freedom or taking away that freedom, people choose freedom every time," she told an editorial writer. "What's interesting to me is that we are finding this across the board: Democrats, independents, even a significant number of Republicans."

The repeated attempts to limit or ban abortion and constrain other reproductive rights, Smith said, are rooted in "a deep disrespect for women. It's an old idea — that women can't be trusted to make such decisions, that they need guardrails." In her advocacy work, she said, "I saw women every day fully capable of making such decisions, who had considered every aspect." To assume otherwise, she said, is insulting.

Smith also cautioned that the fight is far from over. There are elements pushing hard for a national ban on abortion. "If that happens," she said, "that wipes away state statutes. Even a state constitutional amendment would be preempted by federal law."

Republicans once thought their ultimate victory would be to have the Supreme Court reverse Roe. They got that. Now they realize they have a 50-state fight on their hands, so a national ban is proposed. Others are intent on opening a second front that would restrict or ban abortifacients now used by a majority of women to terminate early-stage pregnancies in private, without having to run a harassing gauntlet of fanatical anti-abortion protesters. Those efforts should fail as well.

Women are refusing to be shamed any longer for wanting to exercise control over their reproductive fates. They are rejecting the notion that as soon as they become pregnant, they are merely vessels whose own rights become a secondary consideration.