Pro-life groups are celebrating wins in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota after those states voted down measures to enshrine a right to abortion into their constitutions, preventing a nationwide sweep on the issue.
Seven other states — Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York — approved measures to enshrine a right to abortion into their constitutions, according to the New York Times. Colorado and Maryland now have no restrictions on the procedure.
“We celebrate the lives that will be saved with the defeat of pro-abortion ballot measures in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement. “Voters stopped the lies of Kamala Harris, George Soros, Gov. [J.B.] Pritzker, and the abortion industry from invading their state and removing laws that protect unborn children and women. The pro-life states of Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota have disrupted abortion activists’ track record, showing the path forward is to fight for life following the examples of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. Dusty Johnson.”
Missouri’s measure overturned the state’s total ban on abortion that took effect after the Supreme Court’s historic overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Several of the ballot initiatives that passed allow restrictions on the procedure after fetal viability — around week 22 of pregnancy — but feature language that would allow abortion to be performed up until birth at the discretion of a healthcare provider if deemed “necessary” to preserve the health of the mother. The measures do not elaborate on the parameters of this exception.
In Nebraska, voters were faced with two opposing ballot initiatives, one that would enshrine a right into the state’s constitution and one that would uphold the state’s 12-week ban. Voters passed the 12-week protection with a majority vote, according to the NYT.
“Like the vast majority of Americans, Nebraskans want vulnerable women and their unborn children at the very least protected from the violence of late-term abortion,” Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, said in a statement. “The abortion at any time, for any reason and funded by taxpayers proposal in Initiative 439 is way far to the left of even many Americans who describe themselves as pro-choice. The abortion industry’s millions in out of state which fueled the spread of disinformation on a massive scale in the end wasn’t enough.”
Florida’s measure failed to meet the required 60% of the vote on Tuesday, keeping the state’s six-week abortion ban in place, according to the NYT. The amendment would have prevented the state from enforcing any laws that prohibit abortion before viability and would have allowed the procedure after viability in cases “necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider,” according to the amendment’s text.
South Dakota voters shot down an amendment proposal that would have prevented any restrictions on abortion in the first trimester and up through birth in cases it is deemed “necessary…to preserve the life or health of the pregnant woman,” according to the NYT.
“The demise of pro-abortion Amendment G is an enormous victory for life,” Dannenfelser said in a statement. “South Dakota is a beacon for how the pro-life movement can win future ballot measure fights. When the pro-life leaders speak up and expose the lies of the abortion industry, life wins.”
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