Hicks-Hudson Statement on Partial Ballot Language Correction

Today, state Senator Paula Hicks-Hudson (D-Toledo) issued a statement after the Ohio Ballot Board met to fix only a part of the disputed ballot language of Issue 1, the Ohio constitutional amendment to guarantee reproductive freedom.

“We’re here fixing misleading language at the last minute because my Republican colleagues refused to let the original ballot language, supported by nearly 500,000 Ohioans, appear on the ballot in front of the voters,” said Hicks-Hudson, who serves on the Ballot Board. “While I’m glad the Ohio Supreme Court did enable us to fix a small part of the misleading language, most of the deliberately partisan wording remains.”

On August 24, the Republican members of the Ballot Board approved misleading language to appear on the November ballot. This week, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that only the use of “citizens of the state” in the ballot language was misleading and needed to be rewritten, leaving in biased phrases like “unborn child” instead of the medically accurate term “fetus.”

Issue 1 will appear on the November 2023 ballot.