Abortion rights activists score major wins in US elections

Voters in California, Vermont and Michigan endorse guarantees and in Kentucky and Montana reject restrictions.

Voters in California, Vermont and Michigan strongly endorsed proposed state charter amendments guaranteeing the right to have an abortion. Picture: AFP

Abortion advocates claimed victory on Wednesday after US voters sided with protecting access to the procedure in several ballot initiatives, in a rebuke of the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn constitutional abortion rights.

Voters in California, Vermont and Michigan strongly endorsed proposed state charter amendments guaranteeing the right to have an abortion.

In the Republican stronghold of Kentucky – where abortion has been outlawed since the Supreme Court ruling – voters rejected an amendment to the state charter that would have in effect made it impossible to challenge the state’s ban. In Montana, the fifth state with an abortion measure on the ballot, a preliminary count ­indicated voters there also ­opposed proposed legislation hostile to the procedure.

The results came after US President Joe Biden and his Democratic Party sought to make a key issue at the midterm election out of the conservative-majority court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that established abortion as a constitutional right.

The court’s decision pushed the issue to states to decide. And as anti-abortion groups mounted strong campaigns to outlaw or ­severely restrict the practice, some 15 states instituted full-scale bans. Analysts suggest progressive voters were motivated to turn out in larger numbers by the issue, and one result was the votes on the abortion-related ballot initiatives.

Edison Research’s exit polls showed that abortion was the top issue for 27 per cent of voters, just below inflation, cited by 31 per cent. “Across the country last night, we saw an unmistakable repudiation of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe,” Centre for Reproductive Rights president Nancy Northup said. “From Kentucky to Michigan to Vermont to California, Americans want their right to abortion protected.”

Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood ­Action Fund, said it was clear the issue of abortion rights “redefined this election”. “Abortion was on the ballot and abortion won,” she said.

The votes in California, Michigan and Vermont for constitutional amendments to protect abortion rights were not surprising: all three are firmly Democrat states, and the electoral verdict was clear. In conservative ­Kentucky, however, the ballot measure supported by anti-abortion groups was rejected by a relatively narrow 52 per cent to 48 per cent margin. If it had passed, it would have inserted into the state’s constitution a clause saying that there is no right to abortion.

The Kentucky Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a challenge to the state ban on abortion next week, noted Elisabeth Smith of the Centre for Reproductive Rights. The court will find it hard to ignore the outcome of the rejection of the ballot initiative.

Anti-abortion activists played down the ballot initiatives, noting that many candidates sharing their views were elected or ­reelected on Tuesday.

“Perhaps the most important lesson from the 2022 midterm elections is that pro-life candidates’ success lies in clearly and consistently leading with their position on protections for the ­unborn,” said the March for Life group. “This was even more true this cycle when pro-life candidates were outspent 10 to one.”

Mr Biden said on Wednesday he would not accept any push by Republicans to pass a federal law outlawing the procedure across the country. The voters “sent a clear and unmistakable message that they want to preserve our democracy and protect the right to choose in this country,” he said. “I will veto any attempt to pass a ­national ban on abortion,” he said.

AFP