Advocates are pushing for abortion-related questions on November ballots for 2024 elections.
Deadlines are coming up between now and July 5 in five states where advocates are trying to gather enough voters’ signatures to put abortion-related questions on ballots in November’s elections.
Measures that would enshrine the right to abortion in state constitutions are already on the ballot in four states, and officials in two more are checking whether the petitions submitted there are valid. Additionally, New York’s attorney general is trying to get a question reinstated after a court removed it.
The push continues after the Supreme Court’s June 13 abortion ruling denying on technical grounds an effort to roll back the federal approval for mifepristone, a drug used for medication abortions. But abortion rights supporters are cautioning against that ruling instilling too much confidence because it’s possible a similar lawsuit brought by someone else could succeed.
It adds up to an election season in which abortion rights will be a major issue, directly and in races for candidates for state and federal office.
The fate of the measures could reshape or confirm the trendlines that have developed in the nearly two years since the U.S. Supreme Court removed the nationwide right to abortion.
Since the court’s 2022 ruling, most Republican-controlled states have new abortion restrictions in effect, including 14 banning it at every stage of pregnancy. Most Democratic-led states have laws or executive orders to protect access.
Voters in seven states—California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, and Vermont—have sided with abortion rights supporters on ballot measures since 2022.
Some efforts that sought to restrict or ban abortion also have failed to reach ballots.
In Wisconsin, the House approved a measure asking voters to ban abortion after 14 weeks, but the legislative session ended without a vote from the state Senate. Likewise, Iowa lawmakers ended their session without approving a measure asking voters to find there is no constitutional right to abortion.
Pennsylvania lawmakers previously pursued a similar amendment, but it’s not expected to be added to the ballot this year. A Louisiana measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution died in committee, one in Maine effectively died when it fell short of receiving the approval of two-thirds of the House and a Minnesota measure was not passed by lawmakers.
