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Abortion Ballot Tracker: Where Your State Stands on Codifying Reproductive Rights

10 0
06.02.2024

UPDATE, February 6, 2024: This article has been updated to reflect developments in Colorado, Florida, and Maine.

Abortion wins elections. We saw it last year when Ohio voters enshrined abortion rights into the state constitution, and in 2022 when Kansas, Kentucky, and Michigan voters rejected abortion restrictions and affirmed expanded protections.

Now, advocates and opponents alike are pushing more abortion-related measures onto upcoming ballots. Rewire News Group will be tracking abortion ballot initiatives and updating this list as groups gather signatures for their petitions and secure their place in this year’s elections.

The state does not currently have a ballot initiative in the upcoming election cycle. Alabama has a total abortion ban with limited exceptions.

Alaska does not currently have a ballot initiative in the upcoming election cycle. The state supreme court has ruled multiple times that abortion is constitutionally protected, and pregnant people can receive abortion care at any point during pregnancy.

Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of pro-choice groups including the ACLU of Arizona, Healthcare Rising Arizona, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, and more, is gathering signatures to put a constitutional amendment affirming the right to abortion on the November 2024 ballot. As of January 12, advocates had collected more than 250,000 of the 383,923 signatures needed by July 3 to get the measure on the ballot. The amendment would allow for abortion care up until the point of fetal viability, somewhere between 24 and 26 weeks. Abortion is currently banned at 15 weeks.

On January 23, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin certified an abortion rights ballot measure after previous attempts were rejected over language. Advocates can now gather signatures to get the measure on the ballot.

On November 28, 2023, Griffin first rejected the title for a proposed ballot measure—dubbed the Arkansas Reproductive Healthcare Amendment that aimed to legalize abortion access up to 18 weeks. In his rejection, Griffin cited confusion over the ballot language’s use of the words like “access” and “health,” and said the ballot’s title “is tinged with partisan coloring and misleading.”

After having its proposed abortion access ballot language rejected by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin for a second time on January 4, advocates submitted a third draft of the measure addressing the last of Griffin’s concerns on January 8.

The ballot question committee behind the initiative, Arkansans for Limited Government (organized by the nonprofit For AR People), said it will propose a revised ballot measure to the attorney general’s office.

The Natural State has a total abortion ban with limited exceptions.

The state does not currently have a ballot initiative in the upcoming election cycle. In 2022, Californians voted to amend the state constitution to include the right to abortion. Abortion is banned at the point of viability.

On the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom launched its campaign to gather signatures for a ballot measure to codify the right to abortion in the state constitution and prevent the government from restricting health insurance coverage for abortion care. According to the secretary of state, the group has until April 26 to collect 124,238 signatures; 2 percent of total registered voters from each of the state’s state senate districts must sign the petition.

Meanwhile, an anti-abortion ballot petition is also in circulation. The measure would establish fetal “personhood” and ban abortion care. According to the secretary of state, the petition must gather the appropriate number of signatures by April 18.

Abortion in Colorado is currently legal throughout pregnancy.

The state does not currently have a ballot initiative in the upcoming election cycle. Abortion is banned after the point of viability.

On January 26, Floridians Protecting Freedom announced that its ballot measure to limit government interference in abortion care would officially appear on the ballot in this year’s general election—after the state supreme court reviews it.

The “Amendment to Limit Government Interference With Abortion” would ban abortion after the point of viability in the Sunshine State. In November, Florida’s Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody asked the state supreme court to weigh in on the measure’s language, which she argues is too vague for voters to understand. The Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on February 7.

Advocates have said they’re worried that an attempt to save the measure by explicitly defining viability would hamper abortion rights advocacy across........

© Rewire.News


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