Right to Reproductive Freedom Ballot Measure

Republicans in Ohio don't want a reproductive rights ballot measure to simply be allowed to be voted upon normally. 

First, they tried making ballot measures harder to pass. Now, the summary is being played around with. Note how they are using the usual buzzwords ("abortion" and "unborn child"):

In the new version, that section becomes: “Prohibit the citizens of the State of Ohio from directly or indirectly burdening, penalizing, or prohibiting abortion before an unborn child is determined to be viable, unless the State demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means."

The ballot measure is not just about abortion. It is a reproductive health measure, just as the constitutional right of abortion is part of a wider collection of rights.  The full text does provide some "small print" on the limits of abortion rights but the summary still is not a fair summary of its breadth. The opening of the measure seems a good summary:

Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.

Consider part of the summary in Roe v. Wade of the right to privacy with the case citations removed:

[This right of privacy] has some extension to activities relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child-rearing and education.

Dobbs claims there is no right to choose an abortion but that its ruling does not interfere with other rights.  Justice Thomas concurred to say that he would go further.  The dissent says "Don't you believe it."  And, lower courts are starting to use it to water down trans rights.  

The right to choose an abortion is part of a collection of rights necessary for liberty and equality.  Ohio's ballot measure recognizes that what is at stake is not some "right to abortion" but a wider matter of reproductive decision-making.  The summary makes it about "unborn children" and "abortion."  

It's bullshit.  

ETA: This article provides a good analysis of the situation, including an additional concern regarding the use of "pregnant woman" instead of the more generic "pregnant patient."  The measure is not just about women -- men use contraceptives -- and "women" are not the only people who get pregnant.  It is not only a trans, non-binary, or queer issue. What of girls?