Ohio’s decisive pro-choice vote last night should sober up Republicans, get the attention of pro-lifers in South Dakota
In the 2020 election, Ohioans went 53.3% Trump to 45.2% Biden – no landslide, but decisive enough. Last night (as of 10 p.m., anyway), Buckeye voters flipped those numbers around and voted to legalize abortions, 55.9% to 44.1%.
The message? Here’s how I read it: A sizable number of Trump voters just happen to favor abortion rights. The GOP in general and, specifically, those Republicans who oppose reproductive choice in South Dakota will ignore it at their peril.
The Ohio results support what I’ve been expecting all along. South Dakotans, who also went strongly for Trump in 2020, will probably legalize abortions here. Petitions to get this done via a constitutional amendment are circulating around the state, and, as Ohio just showed, there is a realistic chance that our deep red state will see this issue on the ballot next November and that it will win.
That prospect is pushing opponents of the idea to take some unusual, indeed extreme, actions in their determination to quash the pro-choice movement. For one, some supporters of the “decline to sign” movement (the source for the graphic above), aimed at stopping voters from signing pro-choice petitions, have been physically approaching potential signers, trying to convince them to refuse when asked to sign.
At the same time, South Dakota Right to Life has presented the South Dakota attorney general a list of charges complaining about pro-choice petitioning activities. I haven’t found those charges and neither has Dakotans for Health, the group supporting petitioners, which says that it has not received any specifics.
The anti-choice forces are showing signs of desperation.
And with good reason.
In 2008, South Dakota voters rejected a ban on abortions, 55% to 45%. In 2006, a similar ban was defeated 55% to 44%.
South Dakotans, who vote strongly Republican, don’t follow their party lockstep when it comes to reproductive rights. I’m betting that the Ohio example will be replicated here in ‘24, and that abortion will be legalized in South Dakota.
Besides having to face the fact that abortion rights are now a driving force for voters, Republicans have to acknowledge that yesterday’s election results, across the board, were disappointing and disturbing.
A Dem has been re-elected governor in Kentucky, which went overwhelmingly (62% to 36%) for Trump in ‘20. Voters in Virginia repudiated their Republican governor by voting for Dem majorities in both state houses.
The only GOP joy last night came out of Mississippi, where the Republican was re-elected governor.
You have to wonder if it will ever dawn on a Trump-dominated GOP that the party hasn’t offered much in the way of a new post-Donald vision. Ohio’s results last night certainly demonstrated that its rigid stance on abortion just isn’t cutting it with voters. Kentucky and Virginia only added to the realization that there is a broader distaste for Republicans and their obsession with the past.
John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam.
