Friday, October 31, 2025
Update from Kellie Copeland, Executive Director:
Friends,
Today was a devastating day for democracy in Ohio.
This morning, the Ohio Redistricting Commission approved the congressional districts map which will be in effect through 2031, further gerrymandering our state.
This action unconstitutionally tilts the outcome of future elections to provide anti-abortion Republicans with more seats in Congress. Rigging our maps in Republicans’ favor provides Trump with more votes for his dangerous and harmful policies. This is an alarming development in the ongoing battle to ensure our voices are heard in government.
Ohioans deserve politicians who represent us, not rule us.
There is no clearer example of the impact of gerrymandering than the struggle to protect the fundamental right to abortion in Ohio, which we told the commission about in our testimony last night. In November 2023, 57% of voters approved the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment, enshrining reproductive freedom in the Ohio Constitution.
Why did the voters have to put abortion rights on the ballot in 2023? Because for over a decade the gerrymandered Ohio Legislature had been going against their will, enacting more than 30 bans and restrictions on abortion. Not only did voters have to go to the ballot, collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures, to get the measure qualified to appear on the ballot, but the same voters had to come out and vote in a special election just months before the November election to fight back a legislatively created constitutional amendment solely focused on making the November election impossible to win.
According to the US and Ohio Constitutions, we have a representative democracy. The people have a fundamental right to elect individuals to represent the needs of our communities in government. Unfortunately, states like Ohio have strayed from this foundational principle, creating district boundaries not based upon representation, but biased to a single party to win elections.
Without representation, we have no democracy. People should pick their representatives, not the other way around.
I’m grateful to everyone of you who has spoken out about the danger of gerrymandering, whether by packing the hearing room last night and again this morning for the final vote, by contacting your state lawmakers, or by talking to your families, friends, and neighbors.
Today’s failure by this commission will make it harder to protect reproductive freedom in the future, but with you by our side, we know that we can win.
For abortion, forever,
Kellie Copeland (she/her)
Executive Director
Abortion Forward
