Unsurprisingly, after the loss of Issue 1, the media, including friends on the right, jumped on this as an opportunity to opine about abortion politics.

 Unsurprisingly, after the loss of Issue 1, the media, including friends on the right, jumped on this as an opportunity to opine about abortion politics. 

They used this as a microcosm of how the pro-life position is not a winner and is a political drain on the conservative movement.

Yet, if any of these brilliant commentators had chosen to look at what happened in Ohio, they would have seen a very different, more interesting and important story.

The reality was that the debate around elevating the threshold to amend the state constitution to 60% is a decades-old debate in Ohio. In fact, five years ago when this proposal was put forward, the resolution was co-sponsored by a Republican and a Democrat.

The fundamental message of the “no” campaign on Aug. 8 had absolutely nothing to do with abortion. The name of the campaign was “One person/One vote.” They ran a very effective, if not manipulative, ad campaign targeted at core Republican and conservative voters, claiming this amendment would “end majority rule” and steal their voice. The opposition’s most potent ad had a pair of scissors cutting up the U.S. Constitution, with no mention of “reproductive rights” or abortion pills.