The Ohio Supreme Court has tossed a lawsuit that sought to keep the proposed abortion amendment from making it onto the statewide ballot this November.
All of the justices rejected a lawsuit brought by Republican former state lawmaker Tom Brinkman of Cincinnati and Jennifer Giroux, a Hamilton County resident who ran for the 27th House district as a Republican last year and failed.
Their lawsuit, filed two weeks ago by Cincinnati attorney Curt Hartman, claimed the amendment was invalid because petitions circulated to gather signatures didn’t specify which state laws would be repealed if voters pass the measure in November, such as the six-week abortion ban that passed in 2019 but is now on hold because of litigation.
In its ruling, three of the four Republican justices on the court said a petition proposing a constitutional amendment does not have to include the text of an existing statute. All three Democratic justices concurred. And one Republican justice rejected the lawsuit on different grounds.
This means the amendment, which could enshrine abortion rights into Ohio’s constitution, has the green light to go before voters this November.
The Ohio Supreme Court will hear arguments on the six-week abortion ban often called the “heartbeat law” on Sept. 27, two weeks before early voting begins for the Nov. 7 election.
