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Sweeping support for a proposed Ohio constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights spotlights the potential power of the issue to drive voter turnout and affect races up and down the ballot, even in Republican-leaning states. A new USA TODAY Network/Suffolk University survey of Ohio showed the amendment guaranteeing access to reproductive services backed by a double-digit margin, 58%-32%. Significant support crossed partisan lines, including a third of Republicans and a stunning 85% of independent women, a key group of persuadable voters. (Page, 7/24)

The fraught politics of abortion have helped turn an August ballot question in Ohio that would make it harder to change the state constitution into a cauldron of misinformation and fear-mongering. State Issue 1, the sole question on the ballot, calls for raising the threshold for passing future changes to the Ohio Constitution from a simple majority to 60%. Starting next year, it also would double the number of counties where signatures must be gathered, from 44 to all 88, and do away with the 10-day grace period for closing gaps in the total valid signatures submitted. (Carr Smyth and Swenson, 7/24)

In other abortion news developments —

A new and intriguing finding from PerryUndem, a nonpartisan research firm, suggests that a significant chunk of abortion-rights supporters may now oppose any government restrictions on abortion — even limits on later abortion that were largely uncontroversial before Dobbs. The researchers asked 4,037 registered voters if they supported a constitutional amendment establishing reproductive freedom. Half of the sample read an amendment identical to the ballot measure that passed in Michigan in 2022; the other half read the same amendment except the researchers removed language that allowed the state to regulate abortion after viability, or when a fetus can live outside a woman’s body. (Thomson-DeVeaux, 7/25)

Former Vice President Mike Pence has been vocal about his support for federal abortion restrictions. During an appearance on CNN last month, the GOP presidential hopeful was asked whether governments that restricted abortion had a financial responsibility to support families facing unexpected pregnancies. He responded that he supported such policies of “compassion.” “If we’re going to stand for life, we have to care as much for newborns and mothers as we do for the unborn,” Pence said. Asked if that included paid family leave and subsidized child care, Pence wouldn’t say outright. (Barclay, 7/24)

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has joined 18 other states' attorneys general in asking the federal government to allow local governments to obtain medical records of patients seeking out-of-state abortion care in certain cases. Rokita earlier this month signed onto a letter asking the U.S. Office of Health and Human Services to abandon a proposed rule change to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA. The draft rule would bar local governments in states where abortion is illegal from obtaining medical records of patients who sought legal abortion care in another state as part of civil or criminal investigations. (Napier, 7/24)

Fact-checking some extreme opinions on abortion —

"In some liberal states," he said, "you actually have post-birth abortions and I think that’s wrong." Some on social media thought DeSantis misspoke, but the post-birth abortion claim is something that Republicans and anti-abortion activists have repeated for years, before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. PolitiFact Rating: False. Killing an infant after birth is infanticide and is illegal in all 50 states. Situations resulting in a fetal death in the third trimester are exceedingly rare, and involve emergencies such as fetal anomalies or life-threatening medical emergencies affecting the mother. (Putterman, 7/24)

Also —

The US Supreme Court has Taylor Porter questioning her career path, where she wants to live, and even the relationships around her as she enters her final year at the University of Texas. Porter, 20, wonders if she’ll be able to pursue plans to be a physician’s assistant and whether she should leave Texas, a red state, after the rulings all aligned with the court’s 6-3 conservative majority striking affirmative action, student loan forgiveness, and abortion rights. (Headley and Cohen, 7/24)