This November, voters in at least 10 states will take to the polls to determine the future of abortion access in their state, after a nationwide effort by organizers to secure a wave of ballot measures aimed at restoring or protecting the right to an abortion — and some aimed at restricting it.
Abortion rights advocates hope the effort will restore the issue of reproductive health access to the people, after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, eliminating the national right to an abortion.
Most of the proposed ballot measures aim to enshrine the right to an abortion in state constitutions. They follow a series of restrictive trigger laws that went into effect following the Dobbs decision, along with abortion policies that were handed down by politicians or decided by state supreme courts since the decision.
Anti-abortion organizers backed a handful of initiatives aimed at restricting abortion access, though similar restrictive measures have failed in the few states where votes have been held in the past couple of years.
Abortion measures on the ballot in November
Ten states — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota — have already secured abortion measures on the 2024 ballot. All eyes are on Florida, which has served as a critical access point for people seeking services in a region of the country that is fast becoming an abortion care desert. A six-week abortion ban replaced the state’s 15-week ban on May 1.
Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen announced in August that for the first time in the state’s history, two conflicting petition efforts made the same ballot. Now voters in Nebraska will vote on whether abortion rights will be enshrined in the constitution or whether the state’s current 12-week ban will be preserved.
After organizers secured the New York Equal Rights Amendment on the 2024 ballot, it was briefly struck from the ballot by a state judge. State Attorney General Letitia James appealed that decision, and a state appeals court restored the measure to the ballot in June.
A measure in Missouri that seeks to broadly protect reproductive care has made it onto the ballot, while an opposing measure to permanently ban abortion never made it out of the state’s legislative session.
States with potential abortion ballot measures
Organizers in states across the country have continued to work to secure funding, gather signatures and jump through the legal hoops necessary to secure abortion measures on the 2024 ballot.
In most states, the process entails collecting a certain number of signatures by a designated deadline, while others require the additional step of having the ballot language approved by a state court, according to campaign organizers. The abortion rights measures are largely backed by coalitions of reproductive health advocates, many of which have fundraised to secure the money to support the campaigns.
Organizers in Arkansas collected and submitted signatures for a proposed abortion rights measure, but the Secretary of State rejected their petition, saying the organizers did not correctly submit paperwork regarding paid canvassers. The state’s supreme court sided with the secretary, ensuring the measure will not be on the ballot this November.
Lawmaker proposed measures in Iowa and Missouri to restrict or exclude the right to abortion in state constitutions did not make it out of legislative sessions. Lawmakers in Pennsylvania proposed a measure barring the use of public funding for abortions, which is unlikely to pass the state legislature.
States that have voted on abortion post-Dobbs
Seven states have already seen a vote on abortion access since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and reproductive health advocates have been heartened by the overwhelming support for abortion access among voters. Every measure aimed at protecting abortion access has passed, while all measures to restrict it have failed.
While support for abortion access is considered a given in states like California, organizers say these votes offer an important layer of legal protection for patients and providers – and send a message to elected officials about what voters want.
CNN’s Molly English contributed to this report.
