Lessons From Ohio’s Abortion Ballot Measure
Ohio voters delivered a decisive victory for abortion rights on Nov. 7, passing a ballot measure enshrining reproductive autonomy in the state’s constitution. Coming months after Ohioans defeated a ballot measure seen as a proxy for anti-abortion conservatives, the vote was a strong indicator that Americans, even in states led by Republicans, oppose abortion bans.
How did organizers approach Ohio’s abortion battle, and what does it mean for the 2024 elections? Susan Rinkunas, a freelance reporter covering abortion and politics, helped answer those questions in an interview with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES Presents: Rising Up With Sonali. Rinkunas worked as a senior reporter with Jezebel and has contributed to The Guardian, NBC News, Elle, Marie Claire, The Cut, and more.
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Sonali Kolhatkar
is currently the racial justice editor at YES! Media and a writing fellow with Independent Media Institute. She was previously a weekly columnist for Truthdig.com. She is also the host and creator of Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. Sonali won First Place at the Los Angeles Press Club Annual Awards for Best Election Commentary in 2016. She also won numerous awards including Best TV Anchor from the LA Press Club and has also been nominated as Best Radio Anchor 4 years in a row. She is the author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, and the co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women's Mission. Her forthcoming book is Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (City Lights, 2023). She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. She reflects on her professional path in her 2014 TEDx talk, “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host.” She can be reached at sonalikolhatkar.com
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