(Bloomberg) -- A ballot measure that will protect abortion access in Arizona has succeeded, according to ABC and NBC, a win in a state considered among the most restrictive for reproductive rights in the US.
Arizona is one of 10 states where voters had a direct say on abortion rights this election through local ballot measures, the most in any cycle since at least 1970, according to Ballotpedia. The state will have to amend its constitution to establish a right to abortion and prohibit interference before fetal viability — or after viability, if a doctor determines the mother’s life or health is threatened.
A separate ballot measure to limit abortion access in Nebraska won by a slim margin, according to the Associated Press. The state, which had two competing ballot measures on the issue, saw 54.1% of voters elect to prohibit abortion after the first trimester.
Pro-abortion rights ballot measures in Colorado, New York and Maryland, three states seen as protective of reproductive rights, have also won, the AP said. Voters in Missouri too passed a constitutional amendment that would enshrine the right to abortion — the first time that has happened in a state with a total ban. Terminations are completely banned in Missouri, with limited exceptions.
Closely-watched
Earlier Tuesday, a separate ballot measure to expand access to abortion in Florida failed even after garnering 57% support. The threshold for approval was 60%. The measure, known as Amendment 4, would have changed the state constitution to provide a right to abortion before fetal viability.
Florida was one of the most closely-watched after the state enacted a six-week abortion ban in May, making it among the most restrictive places for access in the country, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that backs reproductive rights.
Nancy Northup, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which backs abortion rights, said that the vote will leave the southeastern US as an “abortion desert.”
“Like so many Americans, Floridians are living under an abortion ban they didn’t ask for and don’t want,” Northup said in an email.
Meanwhile, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America welcomed the result in a statement Tuesday. “The demise of pro-abortion Amendment 4 is a momentous victory for life in Florida and for our entire country.”
Ballot measures, either initiated by citizens or state legislatures, have become a common tool in shoring up abortion rights since the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned two years ago. The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision eliminated the constitutional right to abortion at the federal level but didn’t preclude states from granting that protection to its own residents.
As of October, abortion rights supporters had raised $160 million for these measures, about six times more than their opponents, according to the AP.
In 2022 and 2023, residents in seven states including Ohio, Kentucky and Kansas voted on reproductive health-care measures. All ended in wins for abortion rights.
Abortion has also been a key theme in this year’s presidential race. Even before Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Kamala Harris was at the forefront of the Democratic Party’s messaging on the issue. Harris repeatedly blamed Donald Trump for the proliferation of restrictions since the Dobbs decision. Trump, who appointed three justices to the Supreme Court that overturned Roe, has repeatedly shifted his messaging on reproductive rights.
In October, after previously dodging the question, he committed to vetoing a federal abortion ban.
(Adds additional state results, quotes starting third paragraph)
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