Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose now says his support of a plan to make it harder to change the state constitution is about fending off an abortion rights amendment.
LaRose has repeatedly said he wants voters to raise the threshold for future constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60% to make it harder for special interests to put things into Ohio’s constitution. At a Seneca County Lincoln Day dinner recently, he was more specific.
“This is 100% about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution. The left wants to jam it in there this coming November,” LaRose said.
Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment are collecting signatures now, hoping to get the nearly 414,000 they need by July 5 to put an issue on the ballot to enshrine abortion rights into the constitution.
Opponents of the proposed constitutional change LaRose is backing, including some Republican leaders, said the higher standard would make it much harder for voters to change the constitution in the future, even for popular key economic programs to benefit the state.