US abortion rights activists eye Ohio special election

Local election rules might normally be seen as an anodyne issue, but the stakes have been raised by another referendum scheduled for November on codifying abortion rights into Ohio's constitution. After the 2022 Supreme Court decision ending nationwide protection for abortion rights, Ohio introduced a six-week ban that has been held up in the courts. But 58 percent of likely Ohio voters support enshrining abortion rights in the constitution, according to polls released last month by USA Today/Suffolk University and in June by Scripps News/YouGov. There were fewer than 150,000 early votes for an August special election last year. Last year, voters in Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan voted to protect abortion rights by a simple majority.