Abortion rights were on the ballot in three states. This is what the voters decided

() — Voters in three states rallied to protect abortion rights on Tuesday, projects, following a months-long push by Democrats across the country to act on the issue in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the abortion ruling. Roe v. Wade in June.

Lawmakers and party organizers cast the midterm elections as a referendum on Republican efforts to limit women’s choices, even as voters consistently expressed more concern about issues like the economy.

“This fall, (Wade v.) Roe is on the ballot,” President Joe Biden declared in a defiant speech from the White House just hours after the Supreme Court ruling.

While projected that some anti-abortion Republicans will win their racesvoters in key states made clear their support for abortion rights through a series of ballot measures.

This is an updated list of what the voters decided on Election Day.

Michigan enshrines the right to abortion

Michigan voters voted Tuesday to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, a move that will help block a decades-old abortion ban from going into effect, projects.

The passage of Ballot Measure 3 amends the Michigan constitution to establish an “individual right to reproductive freedom, including the right to make and carry out all decisions regarding pregnancy.”

Michigan has a 1931 law that essentially bans abortion in the state, but the courts are blocking that law. Passing the ballot measure helps prevent the ban from going into effect.

The amendment allows the state to regulate abortion after fetal viability, except if necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the patient. It also prohibits the state from prosecuting a person for having an abortion or miscarriage or prosecuting someone who helps a pregnant person “exercise the rights established by this amendment.”

The proposal had to overcome legal challenges to get on the ballot, and the Michigan Supreme Court ordered officials in Septemberand to put the question on the ballot in a 5-2 ruling.

“We are more energized and motivated now than ever to restore the protections that were lost under Roe,” said Darci McConnell, a spokeswoman for Reproductive Freedom for All, a group backing the effort, in a statement after the ruling.

Michigan Republicans criticized the court’s decision, along with another on a voting rights ballot proposal. “Despite the court’s ruling, these measures remain too extreme for Michigan, and we are confident they will be easily defeated at the ballot box in November,” Elizabeth Giannone, deputy communications director for the state party, predicted in a statement earlier this month. this year.

California voters include abortion rights in state constitution

California’s Constitution will protect abortion rights after residents approved a ballot initiative Tuesday to enshrine the right in the state’s governing document, projects.

Currently, the state constitution guarantees the right to privacy, which the California Supreme Court has ruled includes the right to an abortion.

In May, following the leak of the US Supreme Court’s draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, California Democratic leaders Gov. Gavin Newsom, State Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins and State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said in a statement that they would propose an amendment “so there is no question about abortion rights.” in this state”.

The Democratic-controlled state legislature in June approved putting the amendment on the November ballot.

“Proposition 1 ensures that no matter what the future legislature looks like, what the future governor looks like, people in California have a constitutional protection that explicitly guarantees that the state will not interfere with their right to reproductive freedom,” he said previously. to Jodi Hicks, director of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and co-chair of the Yes on Prop 1 campaign.

The California Family Council had called the proposed amendment an “extreme and costly proposal that does nothing to improve women’s health.” And the California Catholic Conference, which opposes Proposition 1, called it a “misleading ballot measure that allows unlimited late-term abortions, for any reason, at any time, including moments before birth, paid for with tax dollars.” .

The Yes on Proposition 1 campaign previously said the proposal would not change “existing state constitutional laws and protections, which provide the right to choose an abortion prior to viability or to protect the life or health of the pregnant person.”

The measure enters into force on the fifth day after the vote is certified.

Vermont supports abortion rights

Vermont voters Tuesday approved an amendment to the state constitution that abortion rights supporters say will protect “every person’s right to make their own reproductive decisions,” including about pregnancy, abortion and birth control. projects .

The Vermont Constitution will now be amended to read: “That an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is fundamental to the freedom and dignity to determine the course of his or her own life and shall not be denied or infringed upon unless warranted by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means”.

Currently, abortion is legal at all stages of pregnancy in Vermont. The proposed amendment was first introduced by the Vermont Legislature in 2019.

The Vermont for Reproductive Liberty Ballot Committee, the coalition that backed Article 22, had previously said that state-level protections “are vital to safeguarding access” now that the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

“It would mean that access to abortion has been codified in the state constitution, and really the most important part of that is that it’s protected in the long run, and it means that access will be there, no matter what our politicians do,” she told previously reported Sam Donnelly, the coalition’s campaign manager.

Both supporters and opponents of Article 22 have said that its adoption means that Vermont lawmakers will not be able to pass any limitations or regulations on abortion in the future because then it would be considered unconstitutional.

Mary Beerworth, executive director of the Vermont Right to Life Committee, which opposes the amendment, said the proposal goes “much, much further” than codifying abortion rights in the state constitution.

“It will be about a wide range of anything related to your personal reproductive autonomy, from surrogacy, three-parent embryo, engineered babies, minors possibly accessing hormone blockers for transgender surgery without their parents’ knowledge or consent.” , he previously told . “It’s opening up a whole new world here if it happens.”

States where the measure has not yet been defined

Kentucky. Voters in the state of Kentucky on Tuesday considered an amendment to the state constitution to say it does not “secure or protect the right” to abortion or abortion funding.

The ballot question facing voters read: “Do you favor amending the Kentucky Constitution by creating a new Section of the Constitution to be numbered Section 26A to provide the following: To protect human life nothing in this Constitution will be interpreted to ensure or protect the right to abortion or require the financing of abortion?

Mountain. Meanwhile, voters in Montana considered a ballot measure that would impose criminal penalties on health care providers who fail to act to preserve the lives of babies born during the course of an abortion.