"The ballot measure would have required that amendments to the State Constitution gain approval by 60 percent of voters..."

"... up substantially from the current requirement of a simple majority. Republicans initially pitched that as an attempt to keep wealthy special interests from hijacking the amendment process for their own gain.... But from the start, that reasoning was overtaken by weightier arguments, led by — but hardly confined to — the abortion debate. The Ohio Legislature passed some of the nation’s strictest curbs on abortion last year, banning the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. State courts have yet to rule on the constitutionality of those curbs, but the law’s passage drove a successful grass-roots campaign this year to place an abortion-rights amendment on the November ballot...."

 
From "Ohio Voters Reject Constitutional Change Intended to Thwart Abortion Amendment/The contest was seen as a test of efforts by Republicans nationwide to curb voters’ use of ballot initiatives" (NYT).