Election 2026

Midterms 2026: Data Centers Out, Reproductive Freedom In

Voters also rejected automated license plate readers, and the idea of transgender girls playing on girls' sports teams in schools.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 11.4.2026 11:49 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Illustration: Adani Samat. Photo: Envato)

Reproductive freedom was popular in yesterday's midterm elections. Data centers were not. Nor were automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems like Flock or the idea of letting transgender girls play on girls' sports teams in schools.

Let's take a closer look at how state and local ballot initiatives related to sex, tech, and gender fared among voters in 2026.

Pro-Choice Wins In 3 Out of 4 States With Abortion-Related Ballot Initiatives

Measures related to abortion and broader reproductive freedoms were on the ballot in four states yesterday: Idaho, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia. Only in Idaho did those opposed to these things prevail.

Idaho Proposition 1 would have created "a right to reproductive freedom and privacy including a right to abortion up to the point of the fetus's ability to survive outside the womb." It would also have barred the government from interfering in decisions about "contraсерtion, fertility treatment, and prenatal and postpartum care." With 95 percent of the votes in, Proposition 1 failed by a fairly large margin, with 56 percent voting no and just 44 percent voting yes.

Things went quite differently in Nevada, where voters seem to have overwhelmingly approved of Question 6, creating a constitutional right to abortion until fetal viability in the state. With 85 percent of votes in, 63 percent of voters said yes.

Virginia voters approved a similar measure. Virginia Question 1—which passed 62 percent to 38 percent—amends the Virginia constitution to "protect the freedom to make personal decisions about prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion, miscarriage management, and fertility care," per the official ballot title. It does so while "allow[ing] for restrictions on access to abortion during the third trimester of pregnancy except when the patient's........

© Reason.com