Sen. J.D. Vance was reeling from Tuesday’s Tuesday vote to enshrine abortion rights in the Ohio constitution.
“For pro-lifers, last night was a gut punch. No sugar coating it,” Mr. Vance, Ohio Republican, wrote on social media.
In the lengthy post, Mr. Vance laid out five reasons why he believes his state voted for abortion rights. The measure —which got the support of nearly 60% of voters — protects abortion access up until fetal viability, with exceptions for the patient’s life or health past that point.
“Giving up on the unborn is not an option. It’s politically dumb and morally repugnant. Instead, we need to understand why we lost this battle so we can win the war,” Mr Vance said.
He said the measure got the votes of those who fell in the middle on the issue because they’d rather have enshrined abortion rights, than none at all. Similarly, he said there needs to be exceptions, or else anti-abortion bills will never pass.
Voter mistrust of elected Republicans played into the decision too, Mr. Vance said. “We need people to see us as the pro-life party, not just the anti-abortion party,” he said.
The fourth reason he gave for the ballot measure’s success was: “We’ve spent so much time winning a legal argument on abortion that we’ve fallen behind on the moral argument [and] we have to do a much better job of persuasion.”
A last reason was that Republicans got “outspent” by Democrats on the issue of abortion.
“A lot of people are celebrating right now, and I don’t care about that. I do care about the fact that because we lost, many innocent children will never have a chance to live their dreams,” he said. “There is something sociopathic about a political movement that tells young women (and men) that it is liberating to murder their own children. So let’s keep fighting for our country’s children, and let’s find a way to win.”
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated the decision of Ohio voters.
“The results in Ohio underscore what the vast majority of Americans believe: politicians should not interfere in decisions that should be between a woman and her doctor,” Ms. Harris said in a statement.
The Ohio vote mimics the success of abortion-rights votes in other states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, including Kansas, California, Michigan, Montana, Kentucky and Vermont.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.