Abortion Amendments Proliferate on 2024 State Ballots

Organizers are leading citizen-driven initiatives to put abortion rights on the ballot this November in at least 10 states. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, voters in seven states have approved amendments to their state constitutions that protect abortion or rejected ones that would have denied a constitutional right to an abortion or penalized providers.

“Again and again, voters have made it clear that abortion is a winning, motivating issue and that the freedom to control our bodies and our futures is something we can all unite around,” said Nourbese Flint, president of All* Above All Action Fund, which works toward advancing abortion justice. “Anti-abortion politicians should remember that protecting access to abortion is top of mind for voters, particularly young people, people of color, and women.”

Although ballot initiatives are time-consuming and expensive, “they are the best option and strategy for winning back access to abortion or maintaining it,” said Jamie L. Manson, president of Catholics for Choice. “Especially with this Supreme Court, they are our only option. Ballot initiatives are one of the few opportunities that people have to show their support for abortion.”

On January 26, election officials in Florida announced that Amendment 4, which limits “government interference with abortion” before viability, would be on the November ballot, pending state Supreme Court review. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the statewide campaign of allied organizations and “concerned citizens,” collected almost 1 million valid signatures, over 100,000 more than required. The state Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for February 7 to rule on whether the language in the amendment disqualifies it from appearing on the ballot, but advocates remain confident. “Florida might not have progressive legislation, but we have a strong history of passing progressive, citizen-led ballot initiatives,” said Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates. “And Floridians don’t want the government interfering with their lives.” In fact, almost two-thirds of Floridians support the abortion amendment. “This initiative has engaged people, and they can see that they are making their mark by working on it. Abortion might have been a previous lightning rod, but now people are really talking with each other about it, and while it may be perceived as a partisan issue in Tallahassee [the state capital], it’s not in the rest of the state.”

Governor Ron DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban last April, but it’s not yet in effect; the current 15-week abortion ban is being challenged in court by providers. “Ballot initiatives bring back the voice of the people, especially in states like Florida where many don’t agree with policies implemented by the state legislature,” said Moné Holder, senior director of advocacy and programs at Florida Rising, a voting rights and grassroots organizing group. “Unfortunately, the state legislature has made attempts to block amendments being placed on the ballot by trying to raise the threshold from 60% to 66%. Although those attempts have been unsuccessful thus far, it leaves a concern for the fate of democracy. Abortion is an issue that people want to see as a ballot initiative so they can vote on it. They don’t want that personal decision in the hands of politicians.”

Additionally, the work on the ballot initiative has been “an incredible opportunity to shift culture and grow the reproductive justice movement in Florida, especially in Spanish- speaking communities,” said Charo Valero, the Florida state manager at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice. “It’s an opportunity to combat mis- and disinformation and abortion stigma, and have deep conversations with Floridians about the importance of access to abortion care, making sure they’re informed about this effort and can make their voices heard.”

In Arkansas, advocates are trying to reverse the state’s abortion ban with a proposed constitutional amendment that would prevent the state from restricting access to abortion up to 18 weeks of pregnancy or in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomaly, or threat to the life of the patient. While the amendment “isn’t perfect and it’s not what we want ideologically, it’s workable,” said Gennie Diaz, founding director of For AR People, a progressive advocacy organization for transparency and accountability in state government. “We are a small, red and rural state, and we will never poll as well as purple states — Arkansas proclaims itself the most pro-life state in the country. We don’t want to be the first state to lose on a pro-abortion amendment, so we have to do a tightrope walk. We have to find the balance between a ballot initiative that potential funders feel good about supporting with a policy that Arkansas voters feel good about passing. Alongside collecting signatures, the most important thing we are doing is educating people. The number one obstacle is how little Arkansans understand abortion — what the procedure is and what the abortion ban really means.” An October poll of “very likely voters” found that 39% supported laws that would make it easier for women to get an abortion while 29% wanted to make it more difficult.

In all the states with these campaigns, the outreach efforts to pass these amendments also serve to educate voters. “Voters here in Arizona get how bad the situation is, but they don’t necessarily know all of the details and specifics,” said Rodd McLeod, spokesperson for Healthcare Rising Arizona, which is part of Arizona for Abortion Access, the coalition of reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations working on the state ballot initiative. If passed, it would guarantee a right to abortion up until the point of “fetal viability,” usually considered to be around 22 to 25 weeks of pregnancy; currently, abortion is banned after 15 weeks in Arizona. “Unless we add the right to abortion to our state constitution, access will be under constant threat.” As of January 11, the coalition had collected more than 250,000 signatures, out of the 383,923 required by July 3.

Although abortion is already legally protected in Colorado with no gestational limits, advocates are working on a ballot initiative to enshrine that protection in their state constitution as well as allowing abortion access regardless of health insurance. “Here in Colorado, we’ve been pushing the envelope on abortion access, and because we’ve laid the groundwork for years, we can be bolder in our solutions,” said Dusti Gurule, president and CEO of the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) and the COLOR Action Fund. “We know that access is a barrier and that this issue impacts our community, and our data shows this issue is also a motivator for Latinas to vote. My biggest concern is the overall negative view that people have about this election, especially on the national level. But this ballot initiative offers a tangible solution for Colorado and has the potential to excite people about voting and protecting their self-determination.”

Increased voter participation was evident this past November in Ohio when voters turned out in “unusually high” numbers, according to ABC News, following outreach around the abortion ballot initiative, which passed. Catholics for Choice invested heavily in Ohio last year to help pass the amendment, and the organization is very involved with state ballot initiatives on abortion this year as well. “Catholic organizations are funding initiatives to defeat abortion amendments, so the faith-based pro-choice community has an essential role to play,” said Manson. “Every Supreme Court Justice that overturned Roe is or was raised Catholic, and losing Roe was a decades-long campaign by the Catholic hierarchy. And Catholics in the pews have been victimized by disinformation about abortion for decades. It is important that we get people the facts about abortion and make it clear that a majority of Catholics support abortion. Churches are organizing bodies and they are mobilizing against the abortion amendments despite the overwhelming majority view that abortion should be legal.”

In Missouri, the first state to ban abortion after Roe was overturned, advocates have started collecting signatures for an amendment to establish the right of individuals to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion up until fetal viability. After more than six months of attacks and delays by state Republican lawmakers, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the statewide coalition working to get the amendment on the November ballot, now have only until May 5 to collect around 172,000 signatures — “which was the point of the state-based attacks,” said Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri. “But now thousands of Missourians are signing up to work on this initiative.”

Advocates have been working to craft amendments that they feel have the best chance of voter approval in their states. While some would expand access, as in Colorado and New York, where voters will decide on a broad equal rights amendment including the right to abortion as well as access to reproductive health care, other ballot initiatives in the more conservative-leaning states would allow restrictions. However, recent polling shows public opinion about restrictions and government interference in abortion to be shifting. “The general public is moving faster than the pro-abortion movement, based on the data we are seeing, and a majority of people want to see ballot initiatives with no restrictions,” said Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, vice president of communications at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. “Now that Roe has been overturned, the slate has been wiped clean and we have an opportunity to write the future that we want to see. The ballot initiatives in Colorado and New York are going beyond the status quo and are doing just that.”