Since the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, people have been regaining it state by state.
Before last week's election, voters in six states had enshrined abortion rights in their state constitutions or defeated ballot measures that would have restricted them.
On Tuesday, that number more than doubled. In seven of the 10 states where abortion rights measures were voted on, they prevailed. From the most liberal of those states (New York) to the most conservative (Missouri), and regardless of how they voted in the presidential race, voters asserted the right to control their own bodies. Even in Florida, where an abortion rights measure failed, he won a more decisive majority than Donald Trump. (More on that later).
Ballot measures in New York, Maryland, Colorado, and Montana enshrined abortion rights (and, in New York, other equal rights protections) in the constitutions of states where they are already substantially protected by law. Abortion is legal up to the point of fetal viability in Montana, for example, but lawmakers have repeatedly tried to restrict it.
These measures may be unnecessary in liberal states where abortion is still legal (and let's hope they are). But every state that codifies the right to abortion in its constitution reinforces it against the whims of elected officials. California voters approved a constitutional amendment that strengthens the state's already strong abortion protections in 2022.
The biggest victories Tuesday were for measures adopted in Arizona, which banned abortion after 15 weeks, and Missouri, where abortion was illegal with no exceptions for incest or rape. Missouri lawmakers have barely missed an opportunity to attack abortion rights: One lawmaker proposed a measure to make it illegal to help someone leave the state for an abortion.
Both states now have constitutionally guaranteed abortion rights to the point of viability. Although it will take legal or legislative efforts to lift their now unconstitutional bans, it is amazing progress for those states and the people who live in them.
These election results should send a powerful message to state and federal elected officials and the incoming Trump administration: Americans will not tolerate the trampling of their reproductive rights in blue, purple, or red states. Federal officials should keep this in mind when conservative state attorneys general consider trying to prevent abortion drugs from being delivered by mail.
Three abortion rights measures failed last week, all in states that could have desperately used constitutional amendments to guarantee abortion access.
In Florida, which prohibits abortion beyond six weeks (a point at which most women don't even know they are pregnant), Amendment 4 would have constitutionally guaranteed the right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability, which It is approximately 24 weeks. The initiative won a healthy majority of 57.2%, but fell 3 points short of the state's undemocratic threshold of 60% for approval of constitutional amendments. Trump won the state with a smaller majority, 56.1%.
A failed measure in South Dakota, where abortion is banned, would have allowed the procedure up to 12 weeks, which is considered restrictive in other states. Major reproductive rights groups, such as the regional organization Planned Parenthood, did not believe the measure would adequately restore abortion rights and refused to support it.
And in Nebraska, where abortion is prohibited after 12 weeks with some exceptions, the presence of two measures on the ballot created some confusion. The one that failed, Initiative 439, would have guaranteed the right to abortion until its viability and had the support of abortion access advocates. The one that passed, Initiative 434, prohibits most abortions after 12 weeks. Under this measure, abortion could They remain legal up to 12 weeks, but the Legislature has room to further restrict the right to abortion, up to a complete ban.
Advocates have more work to do to convince voters in states with abortion bans and restrictions that there is an electoral path to restoring reproductive rights. “Every state that has a citizen initiative constitutional process and restrictions on abortion is a place where we will be looking,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which worked on ballot measures in Missouri and elsewhere this election season. .
In states that do not allow citizen initiatives, progress will be more difficult. But people in all types of states, liberal and conservative, have shown that they want to protect their right to control their own bodies.
