When the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade In June 2022, it ended the constitutional right to have an abortion and returned the ability to regulate the procedure to the states. Now, in the midst of a heated presidential election that resulted in Donald Trump’s victory, a handful of states have voted to enshrine reproductive rights in their state constitutions.
On Tuesday, Americans in 10 states voted on ballot initiatives to protect or expand access to abortion. Seven of those states successfully passed protective measures, underscoring the widespread unpopularity of restrictive abortion policies.
Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York passed referendums upholding abortion rights, while measures to restore or expand access failed in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota. Abortion is already legal up to viability in Maryland, Montana and New York, and throughout pregnancy in Colorado without restrictions, so the approval of these measures will not change access to abortion in those states.
Nevada currently allows abortions up to 24 weeks, but the ballot initiative passed Tuesday would extend that to fetal viability. Voters will have to approve the measure again in 2026 in order to formally amend the state constitution.
Arizona and Missouri were two of many states that took action to restrict abortion access after the law was repealed. Roe v. Wade. Arizona banned abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, but that law will now be unconstitutional under the newly passed amendment. In Missouri, a trigger law banned abortions at all times during pregnancy except to save the life of the pregnant person. The law, one of the county’s strictest abortion bans, made no exceptions for rape or incest. But on Tuesday, voters backed an amendment that would end that ban and amend Missouri’s constitution to protect access to abortion.
In Florida, an amendment that would have banned laws restricting abortion won 57 percent of the vote, below the 60 percent threshold it needed to pass. The state currently prohibits abortion at six weeks of pregnancy and places other restrictions on abortion.
Meanwhile, Nebraska voters weighed competing ballot measures on abortion rights and ultimately approved one that maintains a ban on abortion after the 12th week of pregnancy. South Dakota voters rejected a proposal to protect abortion rights, preserving a near-total ban there.
