CV NEWS FEED // Following the example of states including Michigan, Kansas, and Ohio, two more states are officially putting pro-abortion measures on the ballot this November.
Pro-abortion activists in nine other states are currently working to collect enough signatures to get a “constitutional right” to kill unborn children on the ballot.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, seven states have added amendments enshrining the “right to abortion” in their constitutions. According to AP News, abortion will officially be on the ballot in both Maryland and New York in November.
In Maryland, voters will be asked whether the state should constitutionally protect abortion. In New York, residents will vote on a broad equal protection amendment. AP News reported in January that the proposed amendment does not specifically mention abortion, but rather bars “discrimination based on ‘pregnancy outcomes’ or ‘gender expression.’”
AP News added, the proposed amendment is “intended to protect abortion rights and a person’s right to seek gender-affirming care.”
The nine states where pro-abortion activists are campaigning to add abortion to the ballot are Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and South Dakota, according to AP News.
Colorado currently has two separate campaigns running concerning abortion—one campaign is collecting signatures to protect abortion, while a pro-life campaign is working to ban abortion entirely.
In Florida, the state’s Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments to decide whether or not residents should vote on abortion in November. Though the campaign collected more than enough signatures to put abortion on the ballot, Attorney General Ashley Moody asked the Supreme Court to reject the proposed amendment on the grounds of its language being too vague.
According to the New York Times, the proposed amendment states that “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.”
The Florida Supreme Court has not yet reached a decision about putting the amendment on the ballot.
According to AP News, four other states—Iowa, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—could vote either for or against abortion this November but likely won’t due to precedent, partisan majorities, or probable vetoes.
