The Pro-Choice Coalition of Oregon is celebrating Oregon Life United’s failure to place an extreme anti-abortion constitutional amendment on the November 2016 ballot. Sponsored by Jeff Jimerson, former State Senator Marilyn Shannon and Suzanne Belatti, Initiative Petition 61 would have embedded in the Oregon Constitution a definition of abortion that includes some commonly used forms of contraception, and would have created unequal access to safe, legal abortion by prohibiting the use of so-called “public dollars” to pay in any way for abortion or certain contraceptives through the Oregon Health Plan or private insurance policies for employees of the state, school districts, cities, counties or any “public” entity. This marks the third consecutive failure by Jimerson and Shannon to bring this measure to Oregon voters. They have never been able to collect enough signatures to even warrant having the Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s office undertake a verification process. The only times measures proposing to limit funding for abortion in Oregon have been on the ballot, in 1978 and again in 1986, Oregon voters soundly defeated them.
