USA – Abortion ballot measures have had success, but this year is their biggest challenge

Aug. 23, 2024
By Kate Zernike, New York Times|

Ballot measures on abortion rights have succeeded beyond what even their proponents imagined when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.

They have not only enshrined a constitutional right to abortion and restored access to the procedure in red and purple states. They have also converted what had been a voter mobilization advantage for Republicans into one for Democrats.

Continued: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/aug/23/abortion-ballot-measures-have-had-success-but-this/_

USA – ‘No one’s coming to save us’: Abortion campaigns scramble for limited cash

From deep-red Arkansas and Missouri to purple Arizona and Nevada, activists are already competing with each other.

By MEGAN MESSERLY and ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN
02/19/2024

Abortion rights could be on the ballot in nearly a quarter of states this November, raising concerns among supporters about the ability to fund major campaign efforts in all of them.

From deep-red Arkansas and Missouri to purple Arizona and Nevada, activists are already competing with each other for a limited pool of cash and auditioning for the national progressive groups they need to fund their efforts to enshrine protections in state constitutions.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/19/abortion-access-map-funding-00141436

The abortion activists who say bringing back Roe is not enough

Abortion rights groups split with mainstream movement over support for former legal framework of ‘viability’

Susan Rinkunas
Sun 21 Jan 2024

Since the devastating loss of Roe v Wade, the abortion rights movement has seen historic levels of support for its cause, particularly through major victories on state ballot initiatives, with more expected this November. But as advocates move to re-enshrine the right to abortion at the state level, a struggle has emerged over whether to reproduce Roe’s legal framework – or go further.

…A number of ballot campaigns slated for November seek to bring back that standard – but a group of advocates is banding together to declare that the broader movement is engaging in harmful compromises when it could instead use the momentum to push for “clean” policies that don’t draw a strict limit to abortion access.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/21/abortion-activists-future-roe-v-wade

USA – Conservatives move to keep abortion off the 2024 ballot

“We don’t believe those rights should be subjected to majority vote.”

by ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and MEGAN MESSERLY
12/18/2023

Conservatives are testing new tactics to keep abortion off the ballot following a series of high-profile defeats.

In Arizona, Florida, Nevada and other states, several anti-abortion groups are buying TV and digital ads, knocking on doors and holding events to persuade people against signing petitions to put the issue before voters in November.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/18/first-rule-of-the-anti-abortion-playbook-dont-let-the-public-vote-on-abortion-00132049

Restore Roe, or Go Beyond It? The Question Is Fracturing the Abortion Rights Movement

“We have an opportunity here to build something better, and we’re not even talking about it.”

MADISON PAULY
SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Not long after Election Day last November, Pamela Merritt joined a call with other abortion-rights activists in Missouri to discuss a daring proposal: sidestepping the state’s ruling Republicans by directly asking voters whether to add abortion rights to their state constitution. The group hoped to capitalize on a recent trend. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, pro-choice voters had been showing up to the polls in force, rejecting anti-abortion ballot initiatives in Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana. They went even further in California, Michigan, and Vermont, passing state constitutional amendments to guarantee, among other things, the right to choose abortion.

This unbroken string of victories has energized advocates who see ballot initiatives as a key tool in the post-Roe world, especially in states controlled by Republicans. Even in Missouri, where the anti-abortion movement was so successful that only one clinic remained by 2022, national progressive organizations smell opportunity. “Right now, every single state is dealing with a pro-abortion, riled-up base that wants a Kansas,” Merritt says, referring to the special election about abortion last year that drew greater turnout than any primary in the state’s history. “There’s pressure.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/09/roe-v-wade-abortion-rights-amendment-missouri-pro-choice-ohio-arizona-planned-parenthood-viability-limits/

11.09.2023

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Abortion Action Missouri

ACLU of Missouri

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Arizona for Abortion Access

ballot initiatives on abortion

Medical Students for Choice

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Reproductive Health Act of 2019

Republicans Are Torching Democracy to Deny Women Abortions

One year after Dobbs, GOP lawmakers in Ohio — and across the U.S. — are frantically trying to keep voters from weighing in on abortion

BY TESSA STUART
JUNE 22, 2023

KIERRE MORGAN HAS had an abortion, but it was the abortion she didn’t have that transformed her into an activist. She was 17 and in denial, at first, about being pregnant at all. Under Ohio law, she needed permission to terminate her pregnancy, and — after considering whether she could use a fake ID — she finally had a conversation with her adoptive parents. They overruled her decision. “Their options were: I could have my daughter, and they would raise her, which was a big ‘No.’ …An absolute ‘No.’ Or I could have her and raise her — which I did. There was no other option.”

Kelly Hall, the executive director of the Fairness ProjectHer daughter is 29 now, and Morgan calls her her best friend (“I don’t know if she would say I’m her best friend,” she adds, laughing), but she would not wish the life they were forced to navigate on anyone. There were times she didn’t have enough money for food. They slept in homeless shelters and “in motels where there was prostitution outside the door, and there was blood inside the motel room,” she recalls. “You just look at it and you say: ‘This is what I wanted to prevent. I did not want my child to go through this.’”

Continued: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/abortion-rights-roe-dobbs-ohio-democracy-1234775783/

22.06.2023

Society of Family Planning

Abortion rights groups look to build on their victories with new ballot measures

Efforts are already underway in 10 states to push citizen-led ballot initiatives that would enshrine abortion in their constitutions.

Dec. 23, 2022
By Adam Edelman

Energized by a perfect record on ballot measures in last month’s midterm elections, abortion-rights groups are setting their sights on more victories over the next two years.

Activists are already planning citizen-led ballot initiatives that would enshrine abortion rights in the constitutions of 10 states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/abortion-rights-groups-look-new-ballot-measures-2023-2024-rcna61317

How Republicans are trying to block voters from having a say on abortion

Ballot initiatives have proven a winning strategy for abortion rights activists – but Ohio Republicans want to make it harder for voters

Poppy Noor
Mon 19 Dec 2022

Ohio advocates hoping to replicate a string of abortion rights victories fear being stymied by Republican lawmakers who are attempting to make it harder to pass citizen-initiated constitutional amendments.

Ballot initiatives put directly to voters have proven a winning strategy for abortion rights activists since Roe v Wade was overturned this summer, with six referendums delivering favorable results for pro-choice advocates.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/19/abortion-rights-votes-ballot-initiatives-republican-stop-referendum

USA – After wins at the ballot, abortion rights groups want to ‘put this to the people’

November 11, 2022
Sarah McCammon

Abortion rights supporters had a successful run of ballot measures this year. In every state where voters were asked to weigh in directly on abortion rights, they supported measures that protect those rights and rejected initiatives that could threaten them.

Those victories have abortion rights advocates looking at where they can next take the fight directly to voters.

Contiuned: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/10/1135757008/after-wins-at-the-ballot-abortion-rights-groups-want-to-put-this-to-the-people

11.11.2022

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American Civil Liberties Union

Anthony Romero

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Kelly Hall

Marjorie Dannenfelser

USA – “This is the beginning of a very long arc”: The midterms prove abortion can galvanize voters

Voters overwhelmingly supported women’s reproductive freedom on Tuesday, both electing pro-abortion-rights lawmakers and voting in favor of abortion rights—even in red and purple states—on ballot initiatives. “When voters have a chance to decide on this issue, they choose to protect their rights,” one activist said.

BY ABIGAIL TRACY
NOVEMBER 9, 2022

For weeks, pundits and prognosticators questioned whether the fall of Roe v. Wade would actually be a key voting motivator this election cycle. Democratic consultant James Carville’s famed 1992 adage, “It’s the economy, stupid,” rang loud as the narrative grew that gas prices and inflation would overshadow the importance of protecting women’s reproductive rights. Then Josh Shapiro beat Republican Doug Mastriano, who had indicated, without hesitation, that he would sign whatever antiabortion law was put in front of him. Kentucky voters blocked a constitutional amendment that would have denied any abortion rights. Vermont enshrined abortion protections into its state constitution, while Michigan did the same. And California voters went one step further, also writing access to contraceptives into law. Democrats vastly surpassed expectations on Election Day.

As the results rolled in throughout the night, one thing became crystal clear: Abortion was on the ballot.

Continued: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/11/abortion-midterms-democrats-2022