Illinois abortion: Gov. Pritzker flexes political muscle to defeat Issue 1 in Ohio special election

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WLS) — Governor JB Pritzker donated money and knowledge to the successful efforts to defeat Issue 1 in Ohio, which would have made it much harder to protect abortion rights in the state.

In a special election Tuesday, Ohio voters rejected a Republican-backed measure, known as Issue 1, that would have raised the threshold for changing the state constitution from a simple majority to 60% of voters. The move was aimed at making it harder in November for abortion supporters to add a constitutional protection for abortion access.

READ MORE: Ohio voters reject measure that would’ve hindered abortion protections

Pritzker donated $250,000 to help defeat the measure, as well as providing political strategists from his team to help. The governor said he was pleased by the outcome of the vote.

“Now you can see at least going forward in November, a real decision that gets to be made by a majority of people in Ohio about whether they want to preserve their reproductive rights,” he said.

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Pritzker is expected to continue supporting causes important to democrats in other states, particularly around abortion.

“JB Pritzker is a very powerful billionaire and very influential governor in Illinois, but he wants to be a big player on the national scene. Everything he does to help this issue for the Democrats helps him politically nationally,” said ABC7 Political Analyst Laura Washington.

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For Republicans, the Ohio defeat is just the latest in a series of abortion losses in states around the country, which has prompted talk about the need to take a more moderate stance on the hot-button issue.

“The problem we have is too many of them run in very strong pro-life districts. And if they were to vote in a more moderate fashion for a say, 15 week abortion ban, they would be run on office in their next primary,” said Tim Schneider, former chair of the Illinois Republican Party.

“It was a big issue in the last round of elections in the midterms. It had a lot of influence. It’s going to continue to be a point of discussion. And right now the Republicans are on the losing end of that discussion,” said Washington.

Democrats, meanwhile, are expected to continue to use the abortion issue to motivate their voters to the polls in the 2024 election cycle. Ohio is a clear indication the strategy works.