How abortion measures have emerged as a powerful tool for both Democrats and Republicans

Kate Murphy
Illustration by Juanjo Gasull.
Illustration by Juanjo Gasull.

This week marks one year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which previously guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion, returning the issue of abortion to individual states.

In the year since the court’s controversial ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 13 states have completely banned abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

At the same time, abortion rights advocates have turned to ballot initiatives as a powerful tool in the face of such bans. In the 2022 midterms, voters in conservative Kansas, Kentucky and Montana used citizen-led ballot initiatives to reject proposals restricting abortion access, while voters in the more progressive states of California, Michigan and Vermont passed initiatives to enshrine abortion rights into each of their state constitutions.

Voters at a polling place in a student union at the Ohio State University.
Voters at a polling place at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 8, 2022. (Sarah L. Voisin/the Washington Post) (The Washington Post via Getty Im)

Now, abortion rights groups are hoping to re-create those midterm victories in 2023 and 2024 with similar citizen-led ballot initiatives in states with GOP-dominated legislatures like Florida, Ohio and South Dakota.

Some Republican-led states, such as Ohio, have responded to the success of such measures by seeking to make it harder for citizens to change laws or state constitutions through ballot initiatives. But in other states, conservative lawmakers are taking a page from the abortion rights advocates’ book by proposing ballot initiatives of their own.

Here’s a look at some of the abortion-related ballot initiatives both sides are proposing ahead of statewide elections in 2023 and 2024.

Possible anti-abortion ballot initiatives:

  • Pennsylvania: The No State Constitutional Right to Abortion Amendment, which could be on the Pennsylvania ballot in 2023, would change a section of the state constitution to read: “This constitution does not grant the right to taxpayer-funded abortion or any other right relating to abortion.” Abortion is currently legal in Pennsylvania until the 24th week of pregnancy.

  • Iowa: A similar proposal, which could make its way onto the ballot in Iowa in 2024, would add this line to the state constitution: “To defend the dignity of all human life and protect unborn children from efforts to expand abortion even to the point of birth, we the people of the State of Iowa declare that this Constitution does not recognize, grant, or secure a right to abortion or require the public funding of abortion.” Abortion remains legal in Iowa through 22 weeks of pregnancy, as the state’s Supreme Court is currently deadlocked over Gov. Kim Reynolds’s six-week ban.

Pro-abortion-rights measures that have already secured a spot on the ballot in 2024:

  • Maryland: The Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment would change Maryland’s constitution to say that every person has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, “including but not limited to the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.” Maryland state law currently protects abortion until viability.

  • New York: The Equal Protection of Law Amendment would enshrine abortion rights in New York’s state constitution by banning any kind of discrimination based on "ethnicity, national origin, age, and disability," as well as "sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy." New York state law currently protects abortion until viability.

Additional abortion rights initiatives that advocates are hoping to get on the ballot in Republican-led states:

  • Ohio: The Right to Reproductive Freedom With Protections for Health and Safety is a proposed 2023 amendment that would enshrine reproductive rights in the Ohio constitution by adding a section stating that every person has a right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.” Abortion in Ohio currently remains legal until 22 weeks of pregnancy, after a six-week ban was blocked indefinitely by a judge.

  • Florida: Voters in the Sunshine State may be asked to consider a ballot measure in 2024 that says, “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 healthcare provider.” Abortion is currently banned in Florida after 15 weeks of pregnancy, but Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a six-week ban that could soon take effect pending the outcome of ongoing litigation in the state’s supreme court.

  • South Dakota: The South Dakota Right to Abortion Amendment would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution by making abortion legal, while allowing certain regulations after the first and second trimesters. Abortion is currently banned with no exceptions for rape or incest in South Dakota.

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