Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans in one of four victories for abortion rights advocates, while Florida and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place.
Abortion rights amendments also passed in Colorado and Maryland. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York. A measure that allows more abortion restrictions was adopted in Nebraska, but the outcome of a competing measure to create a right to abortion was pending, leaving the on-the-ground fallout there uncertain.
Results were still pending in three other states with abortion measures on the ballot.
The Missouri and Florida results represent firsts in the abortion landscape, which underwent a seismic shift in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a ruling that ended a nationwide right to abortion and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states.
Missouri is positioned to be the first state where a vote will undo a ban that’s already in place. Currently, abortion is barred at all stages of pregnancy with an exception only when a medical emergency puts the woman’s life at risk. Under the amendment, lawmakers would be able to restrict abortions past the point of a fetus’ viability — usually considered after 21 weeks, although there’s no exact defined time frame.
But the ban, and other restrictive laws, are not automatically repealed. Advocates now have to ask courts to overturn laws to square with the new amendment.
“Today, Missourians made history and sent a clear message: decisions around pregnancy, including abortion, birth control, and miscarriage care are personal and private and should be left up to patients and their families, not politicians,” Rachel Sweet, campaign manager of Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, said in a statement.
Roughly half of Missouri’s voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 2,200 of the state’s voters. But only about 1 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in all cases; nearly 4 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in most cases.
Florida is the first state since Roe was overturned where abortion opponents prevailed on a ballot measure. Most voters supported the Florida measure, but it fell short of the required 60% to pass constitutional amendments in the…
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