UPDATE, April 2, 2024: This article has been updated to reflect Arizona, Florida, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
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.
On April 2, 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, announced it has gathered more than 500,000 signatures for its ballot initiative, according to NBC News.
The group needed at least 383,923 signatures by July 3 to get its proposed constitutional amendment affirming the right to abortion on the November ballot. The Arizona Republic reported that the group will continue to gather signatures to meet its goal of doubling the required number. Signatures still need to be validated.
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 April 1, the Florida Supreme Court approved Floridians Protecting Freedom’s ballot initiative to limit government interference in abortion care—but it also upheld a 15-week ban that allows the state’s six-week abortion ban to go into effect 30 days from the ruling. At six weeks, most people do not know they are pregnant.
If ratified by voters in November, the “Amendment to Limit Government Interference With Abortion” would ban abortion after the point of viability in the Sunshine State. Advocates have said they’re worried that the attempt to save the measure by explicitly defining viability will hamper abortion rights advocacy across the country for the........