What They’re Saying: #OHSEN Field Supports Federal Abortion Ban, Would Overrule The Will Of Ohioans

January 29, 2024

Cleveland.com: “Moreno, LaRose, and Dolan believe ‘federal intervention’ required on abortion access, despite previously celebrating ‘send[ing] abortion back to the states…’”

Columbus, OH – While the entire #OHSEN field celebrated when Roe v. Wade was overturned because it would allow “voters to decide” on reproductive rights, they now believe the issue requires “federal intervention” and would support a national abortion ban – which would overrule the will of Ohioans who resoundingly voted last November to protect abortion access.

“Bernie Moreno, Frank LaRose, and Matt Dolan think they know better than Ohioans and would all overrule the will of Ohioans by voting to pass a federal abortion ban,” said ODP spokesperson Katie Smith.

Read / watch what they’re saying:

Colleen Marshall, WCMH’s The Spectrum:“On abortion, all seven states that voted on abortion access voted to protect it after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion decisions to the states. Despite that, all three Republican candidates said they would support some level of a federal abortion ban.”

Andrew Tobias, Spectrum News: “All three of [the Republican Senate candidates] feel if they were to get to the Senate, that not only is it appropriate for the federal government to weigh in on [the issue of abortion], but also said they would vote to do so if they could.”

Cleveland.com: Republican Ohio Senate hopefuls celebrated Supreme Court returning abortion to states. Then Ohioans passed abortion rights

Andrew Tobias

January 27, 2024

Ohio’s Republican Senate candidates, like other abortion opponents, previously celebrated the end of Roe v. Wade as a way to send abortion back to the states for voters to decide.

But after celebrating the court’s decision as a major victory, some Republicans are coalescing around the possibility of a different kind of federal intervention: a legislative ban.

One of the debate moderators […] asked all three candidates if they view abortion as a federal issue and if so, why.

All three said they did, and expressed interest in passing national abortion legislation that they described as reining in Ohio’s new abortion-rights amendment, which they all opposed and view as going too far.

It won solidly in an off-year election where it was top billing, and where it got outsized attention after Republicans (led by LaRose) scheduled an August special election in a doomed effort to make it harder to pass the abortion amendment. When voters cast ballots in November, the amendment won in 18 counties where former President Donald Trump won in 2020, and it would have passed even without the state’s most heavily Democratic counties: Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton counties.

Immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, LaRose celebrated the decision as a victory for “state’s rights.” Ahead of last November’s election, LaRose again said he thought abortion was best dealt with at the state level – but added a major qualifier.

“I think the Supreme Court pushing this down to the states is a reasonable approach for now,” LaRose said in an August interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd. “But as I’ve said, I’m pro-life, and if a pro-life measure were to come to me in the Senate, I’d vote for it as a pro-life American.”

But LaRose abandoned the “for now” in his answer during this week’s debate, saying “there should be a bare minimum at the federal level.”

Dolan also expressed interest in passing a national abortion restriction during the debate in Cleveland.

“I have been strong always saying that Roe v. Wade needs to be returned to the states,” Dolan told Fox News, describing the impending “Dobbs” decision that struck down Roe v. Wade as “exciting.”

During the debate in Cleveland, Dolan said the abortion-rights measure that Ohio voters approved in November was “terrible” […] “If that starts becoming the norm, then I do think we have to step up at the federal level,” Dolan said, repeating a stance he shared with the Columbus Dispatch last October…

Moreno also has described the Dobbs decision as largely returning abortion to the states after finding there’s no constitutional right to an abortion.

But that doesn’t mean Moreno thinks the federal government should take a hands-off role. During the debate this week, Moreno, as he has throughout his current Senate campaign, called for federal legislation banning abortion…

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