Marietta native Lauren Blauvelt has been named in Time’s magazine most influential people in America. Blauvelt is the co-chair of Ohioans United for Reproductive rights. (Photo provided)

MARIETTA – A Marietta native was listed on Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2024.

Lauren Blauvelt, daughter of Rick and Susan Blauvelt of Marietta, is the co-chair of Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, the organization that pushed to get the Ohio Issue 1 abortion rights amendment put on the ballot and adopted in November.

The Time award was an honor for everyone involved in the effort to pass Issue 1 in November and defeat an earlier amendment, also called Issue 1, in August that if passed would have required any newly proposed constitutional amendment receive at least 60% affirmative vote for passage, she said. The August issue, if passed, would have required the supermajority in November, she said.

“It was a major effort we all did to change the course of history for Ohio,” Blauvelt said.

Blauvelt graduated in 2006 from Marietta High School then graduated in 2010 from the University of Cincinnati. She then went to work for Planned Parenthood Southeast Ohio Region and is now the executive director of Planned Parenthood of Ohio. Issue 1 was “definitely the culmination of these 14 years,” Blauvelt, 36, said.

The Time award cites Blauvelt and all others who “worked day and night to get out the vote, and all the voters who came out in support of Issue 1 in November 2023,” the first time voters in a Republican-controlled state acted on the right to an abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Ohio is a blueprint for other states, Time said.

“Within the patchwork of different state laws, clinics in Ohio remain a lifesaving refuge for women from surrounding states that have banned abortions, especially for those who cannot use telemedical services like Aid Access because they are more than 13 weeks pregnant,” Time said.

“I was very honored to lead that coalition,” she said.

The work is not over, Blauvelt said. Legislators continue to threaten abortion rights and other freedoms despite the defeat of the ballot issues and “not listen to Ohio voters,” she said.

Jess Mancini can be reached at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.