Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

CLEVELAND,Ohio-Ohio State Issue 1, the ballot issue that would have increased the threshold for future amendments to the Ohio Constitution from the currently required simple majority to a 60 percent super-majority, is headed for supreme defeat, early election results on Tuesday reveal.

With 26 percent of the Ohio vote counted, unofficial results show that  Issue 1 is failing 61.6 percent to 38.7 percent. a likely win for pro-abortion advocates who say they will now turn their attention to November 2023 when a constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion in the Ohio Constitution will be determined by voters in the state of Ohio, which will again become a pivotal

state on Tuesday if voters across partisan lines defeat Issue 1.

While statewide results of the election are not expected until late into the night on Tuesday or early Wednesday Issue 1 opponents remain elated after CNN predicted an outright defeat of the controversial measure in its nightly news segments.

Led by county Democratic Party operatives, the heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland and is Ohio's second largest county, led the way for Democrats as usual as 74 percent of voters in the 29 percent Black county said no to Issue 1. The voter turnout in the county was at 37 percent, down three points from the 2022 turnout for the state's gubernatorial election, where countyvoters turned out at 40 percent.

"We united and overcame this hurdle," said Women's March Cleveland head organizer Kathy Wray Coleman, a longtime Black Cleveland activist and organizer who has spearheaded more than a dozen reproductive rights marches in Northeast Ohio and Cleveland since 2018. "It shows the power of the ballot box on public policy issues in Ohio and we shall utilize this momentum to carry us to victory in November as we continue our fight for abortion access for all women in Ohio."

i want to thank the voters and supporters in Ohio who showed up and showed out ," Rep Shontel Brown, a greater Cleveland Democrat and former chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, told CNN Tuesday night. She added that" this was about freedom," and she called Ohio "the pathway to victory when it comes to politics."

Democrats in general called Issue 1's defeat, "a major victory for democracy in Ohio."

Early last month, volunteers from across the state, led by a coalition of abortion advocates, processed petitions for the abortion ballot initiative  in Ohio's biggest cities like Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Toledo and in some suburban and rural areas. and the initiative made the ballot as organizers collected nearly double the more than 415,000 signatures needed. In turn, Republicans, led by Gov Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Frank LaRose, pushed the Republican-dominated state legislature to put Issue 1 on the ballot this summer in an attempt to derail the abortion issue on the November ballot. The strategy unnerved voters across partisan lines and could have implications for the 2024 presidential election id it fails badly, sources predict.

Polling shows that the reproductive rights amendment to enshrine abortion in the Ohio Constitution would likely pass with somewhere between 50 to 60% support but the win on Issue 1 for abortion supporters has heightened that standard, sources say.

Hundreds of women in greater Cleveland, led by Women's March Cleveland. Ohio's largest grassroots women's rights group that has been fighting for reproductive rights since 2017 when Donald Trump took office as president for a first term, rallied and marched outside of Cleveland City Hall on  Sat., June 24, the one-year anniversary of  the overturning of Roe v wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. These same women's advocates, and others, are the one's pushing for a constitutional amendment for abortion access in Ohio.

Last year, on June 24, 2022, the nation's high court, in Dobbs vs Mississippi Health Organization, ended access to abortion for women nationwide and gave individual states the authority to legislate abortion, including to restrict or outright outlaw the procedure all together, causing a firestorm of protests throughout the country.

More than 14 states have near-total abortion bans during any point in pregnancy in effect, and at least six states have implemented abortions bans with other limits from six to 20 weeks bans. Ohio has a six-week abortion ban dubbed "the heartbeat bill" that is on hold per a judge's ruling .

Ohio would become the seventh state in the country to vote on abortion rights behind Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky, Vermont, Montana and California. All those states had either proposals that enshrined the right to an abortion, or allowed the state to regulate abortion.

Ohio will become the seventh state in the country to vote on abortion rights behind Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky, Vermont, Montana and California. All those states had either proposals that enshrined the right to an abortion, or allowed the state to regulate abortion.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.