Last week, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas issued a ruling that invalidated the 23-year-long United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions. This is yet another step in the Republican Party’s plan to erode reproductive rights nationwide, and comes shortly after the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. This attack on reproductive rights only highlights the need for action. Here at Kenyon, students should support these rights by signing the petition in support of the Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety amendment. With enough signatures, the petition would put the proposed constitutional amendment protecting reproductive rights on the ballot in November. 

The proposed amendment would ensure Ohioans’ rights to reproductive autonomy, including abortion, contraceptives and fertility treatments. For example, it would allow abortion bans after fetal viability, around 24 weeks. Currently, in Ohio, abortion is legal before 22 weeks. A ban on abortions after six weeks signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine has only been stayed until legal challenges to the six-week ban are considered by the Ohio Supreme Court. The proposed amendment would make this restrictive, nonsensical six-week ban unconstitutional. To get the amendment on the ballot, petitioners need to collect more than 400,000 signatures by July 5. 

All Kenyon students and community members registered to vote in Ohio should sign this petition. Based on the makeup of the state Supreme Court, getting this amendment on the ballot is imperative to protecting reproductive rights in Ohio. 

Ohio voters registered in Knox, Montgomery, Hamilton or Cuyahoga counties will have the opportunity to sign the petition tomorrow from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Middle Path across from the Village Inn. Additionally, Kenyon’s Planned Parenthood Generation Action (PPGA) chapter will be out collecting signatures for the petition in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

Amelia, Salvatore and Reid

The staff editorial is written weekly by Editors-in-Chief Amelia Carnell ’23 and Salvatore Macchione ’23 and Executive Director Reid Stautberg ’23. You can contact them at carnell1@kenyon.edu, macchione1@kenyon.edu and stautberg1@kenyon.edu, respectively.