This November, Ohio will become the seventh state to vote on whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution since the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In Ohio, youth ages 18-24 make up less than one-sixth of the state’s population but more than one-third of the tens of thousands of abortions conducted each year. As Ohio looks to November, we talked to students at three Ohio universities to hear their thoughts on how — and whether — they’ll vote.'It's not pro-murder'
For Anna Mullinger, the debate over abortion rights isn’t about legislation. Or philosophy. Or even religious beliefs.
"People don't understand," she says. "Do you want women to die or not?"
Mullinger, 21, is a rising senior at the University of Cincinnati who moonlights as an artist between shifts at her UC summer job. The most recent piece on her website is a poster of two faces smeared together, stitches twirling across grimaces and blackened eyes. Three words splash across the frame in red and blue: "La Femme / Exorciseur."
On UC's summer graduation day two Fridays ago, Mullinger ducked out of the afternoon sun on her lunch break, watching streams of foil balloons and students boil in graduation garb. I found her sitting back in the shadows. Asked about abortion rights, she leans in.
Several women in her family received abortions, she says, and conversations with them convinced her partisan discourse about abortion gets it wrong. "Nobody's, like, excited to go to the abortion clinic," she says. "Nobody is going out of their way to kill babies. It's not pro-murder."
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That's why, she says, she's glad Ohio's November ballot proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution will be settled at the ballot box, not behind closed doors at the Statehouse.
"We are the ones that are experiencing what's going on. Not them," she adds, referring to state lawmakers. "They're behind the desk."
Interviews with six other UC students and faculty that afternoon indicated many on campus would agree.
"I definitely think that we should have that in the Constitution," said Milo Ginn, 21, a UC student who lives in Pleasant Ridge.
"I think that people should have the right to have an abortion," said Savanah Howard, 22. "I wouldn't personally get one, but that doesn't mean I don't think other people should be able to get one."
'One thing at a time'
Eleven miles down the Ohio River from the University of Cincinnati, students at the more conservative Mount St. Joseph University expressed anti-abortion rights views more frequently.
The university's Roman Catholic heritage is sculpted into its campus. Stand in the middle of the central quad, and the university's patron saint statue of Saint Joseph stares down. In the science building, biblical statues mark the end of each flight of stairs.
"I've been strong pro-life most of my life," says Mount St. Joseph student Collin Kandra, 22. "I don't think there should be abortion in Ohio. That’s all I have to say about that."
Other Mount St. Joseph students were less sure. Alexander Smith, 22, said he "wasn’t aware" of the November abortion rights ballot proposal when we spoke. "Can't have an opinion on something you don't know much about."
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Sarah Haverbusch, 19, says she's "not really that politically inclined." So, "I'm just planning on doing my research before the election."
Election research or not, Haverbusch says, classes will take precedence. "Right now, I'm more focused on school coming up. I take it one thing at a time."
'We were denied'
But beneath the well-trimmed lawns and orange brick at nearby Xavier University, abortion rights are tearing into campus discourse.
"As a Black student here at Xavier University, I think that it's just very disappointing to have to fight for basic human rights," says Khalia Simmons, 20.
For years, she says, the Jesuit Catholic university's administrators have backed anti-abortion student group Xavier Students for Life. In January 2019, former university president Father Michael Graham condemned vandalism against one of the group's displays, writing that Xavier "is and must be squarely on the pro-life side of this debate."
That year, anti-abortion rights students began canvassing across Xavier, debating abortion-related issues on campus paths. In November 2021, the group penned an editorial in Xavier student newspaper Xavier Newswire saying that "Xavier must be unapologetically pro-life," declaring students against abortion rights "under attack."
Simmons describes Xavier Students for Life differently. "Their side of it wasn't really looking to help," she says. "Their side was just looking to argue. And students felt very uncomfortable."
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In response, students who support abortion rights tried to assemble a group of their own. "Our voices should have been amplified," says Lola Perez, 20, a Xavier student who took part in efforts to assemble the group. "We didn't think it was fair."
But in a closed-door meeting with student leaders, university president Colleen Hanycz rejected the proposal, saying she would not allow Xavier to become the first of the nation's 28 Jesuit universities to approve a pro-abortion rights student group. Instead, Hanycz allowed students to organize a November rally that saw hundreds of abortion rights student supporters gather at Husman Stage.
In a published photo of the day, Perez stands beside two activists, holding signs that read "Abortion is healthcare / Erase The Stigma" and "MY Body / MY Choice / MY Freedom / MY Voice."
When WVXU reached out to Xavier University for comment, a spokesperson responded that the university also decided to form a student-led organization comprised of both supporters and opponents of abortion, The Coalition United for Reproductive Awareness (CURA). CURA began meeting weekly in January.
"Xavier’s president, Dr. Colleen Hanycz, speaks often of the University's role as a marketplace of ideas, creating an environment that encourages students to engage in difficult conversations with an open mind," the statement reads. "In the context of CURA, these conversations have led students to discover common ground in their desire to more fully explore nuances that are too often missed in pro-life vs. pro-choice labeling."
Even since before Hanycz's tenure, a rainbow banner has spanned the length of the university's Gallagher Student Center lobby, greeting visitors upon entry. "WE BELIEVE … Women's Rights are Human Rights," it reads, next to other slogans like "Accessibility is a necessity" and "Hate has no home here." For most current students, it's been up for as long as they can remember.
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Simmons and Perez say the dissonance only adds to their frustration. "We obviously are a small campus who are looking towards social justice," Simmons says. But, Perez adds, Hanycz’s response seemed to say otherwise. "We were just really frustrated that things weren't matching up."
Simmons adds that the administration's response has taken a toll. "There are students who still look towards action," she says, "but for right now, we're kind of stagnant."
She hopes that the November abortion rights proposal will encourage them to rally back. "I think it would encourage students, at least students who believe in the cause of protecting your body… to vote," she says. She hopes students will assemble again — at the ballot box, if not in their school halls.
Come November, she says, don't count out the young voters just yet.
