Ohio voted to protect abortion rights. Here’s why a similar effort won’t happen in Pa.

Voters in Ohio ensured access to abortion and other reproductive rights in their state constitution by passing Issue 1 on Tuesday. And while abortion was also a winning issue for Democrats in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court race, abortion rights are unlikely to become part of the state’s constitution anytime soon.

That’s because Pennsylvania and Ohio have very different processes for getting a ballot question in front of voters.

The Ohio ballot referendum passed with roughly 56% voter support. Voters in California, Michigan, Vermont, Kansas and Kentucky have all protected abortion through similar referendums since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

“When voters have to make a decision about their bodily autonomy, they will choose freedom every time,” said Signe Espinoza, executive director of Planned Parenthood PA PAC. “We’ve seen it in every state where it’s been proposed from Kansas to Ohio. This is not a liberal vs conservative issue; it’s not even a Democrats vs. Republicans issue.”

Here’s what to know about the vote in Ohio on abortion this week — as well as Ohioans’ vote to legalize marijuana — and how it compares to Pennsylvania:

Voters in Ohio got abortion on the ballot through a citizen-driven petitioning process that doesn’t exist in Pennsylvania. Instead, Pennsylvania voters can only vote on constitutional amendments after they’re approved by the state legislature in two consecutive sessions.

That last caveat prevented a referendum from ending up on voters’ ballots that would have asked to amend the state constitution to explicitly say there is no right to abortion. The State House and Senate both approved the measure last year, but the effort was quashed when Democrats took control of the House earlier this year, killing chances of it passing again in the 2023-2024 session.

That Republican-sponsored Pennsylvania measure wouldn’t have banned abortion outright, but it would have prevented the state Supreme Court from interpreting the right to choice if a law was passed restricting abortion, said Dan Mallinson, associate professor of public policy and administration at Penn State Harrisburg.

“The constitutional amendment process is a much higher bar in terms of getting the question before voters and is driven entirely by the General Assembly,” Mallinson said. “Now, the General Assembly could pass abortion legislation as statute, but the state Supreme Court could strike it down as unconstitutional.”

Ohio and Pennsylvania also had different laws on abortion prior to Tuesday. The Ohio legislature had banned abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, and the passage of Issue 1 on Tuesday means courts will likely invalidate that ban. In Pennsylvania, abortion has long been legal through 23 weeks of pregnancy.

Remil Teny, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, echoed that the two states have different ballot processes.

“Right now, the focus needs to be on providing comprehensive support to pregnant women facing difficult circumstances,” Teny said. “This is something all Pennsylvanians should be able to agree with.”

Proponents of abortion rights were successful in the well-funded state Supreme Court race on Tuesday, with Dan McCaffery securing the Democratic win over Republican Carolyn Carluccio.

Both sides of the abortion rights battle are awaiting a decision on Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Department of Human Services, a landmark case that will determine whether Medicaid can cover abortions in Pennsylvania.

“Either way the court rules it will set the stage for future cases,” Mallinson said.

An October Franklin & Marshall College Poll found that 33% of Pennsylvania voters believe abortion should be legal under any circumstances, 56% believe the procedure should be legal under certain circumstances and 9% think it should be illegal in all circumstances.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro also ran on protecting abortion rights last year, and he recently pulled state funding from anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. But he doesn’t have power when it comes to constitutional amendments — only the legislature is involved in that process. And it would be hard to see much change coming from a divided electorate in either direction, Mallinson said.

Abortion isn’t the only issue Ohio voters took action on in a way Pennsylvania voters cannot.

Marijuana legalization, which voters approved in Ohio on Tuesday, faces a similar situation as abortion rights in the Keystone state.

Any change in the drug’s legal status in Pennsylvania would need to come from the state legislature. At the moment, one bipartisan recreational marijuana bill is being considered. But it lacks significant Republican support, which calls into question its chances of making it onto the floor of the Republican-controlled Senate.

Inquirer staff writer Nick Vadala contributed to this article