CNA Staff, Dec 28, 2023 / 06:00 am
The 2024 elections are less than a year away. While all eyes are on the presidential matchup, there are also numerous efforts by abortion activists to craft abortion rights and add them to state codes and constitutions.
Nearly a dozen states are considering such measures as the new year looms. The efforts come after the 2022 repeal of Roe v. Wade, which returned the power to the states to legislate on abortion, resulting in nearly half of states enacting strong protections for babies in the womb.
In some cases, abortion advocates have already been successful. The Democratic victories in the midterms of 2022 were seen as a decisive sign of backlash against Roe’s repeal. That winning streak continued in Ohio in November, when pro-abortion activists succeeded in passing a ballot referendum that added a new right to “reproductive freedom,” including abortion and contraception, to the state constitution.
Read below to see what’s at stake next November.
Arizona
The political action committee Arizona for Abortion Access has filed language with the secretary of state that could result in a vote on abortion in 2024. More than 38,000 signatures must be gathered by July 3, 2024, for the proposed constitutional amendment to reach the ballot.
Candace Lew, the chair of the abortion rights group, said in September that the group launched the effort because “Arizonans deserve the freedom to make our own decisions about pregnancy and abortion.”
The proposed amendment would allow late-term abortions up to about 22-24 weeks, or later in pregnancy if a doctor deems it necessary for a woman to end the life of her child.
Arizona currently bans abortion past 16 weeks of pregnancy.
Arkansas
The pro-abortion group Arkansans for Limited Government has proposed ballot language to the attorney general that could result in a vote on abortion in November.
The originally proposed state constitutional amendment, an initial draft of which was rejected by the state attorney general in November, would forbid the state from restricting “access to abortion within 18 weeks of conception, or later in pregnancy in cases of rape, incest, [and] in the event of a fatal fetal anomaly.”
David Cox, the assistant director of the Little Rock-based Family Council, told CNA that “if passed, the amendment’s language would effectively erase decades of good, pro-life laws” in the state.
Arkansas presently bans abortion in nearly all cases except if one is necessary to save the mother’s life.
Colorado
Advocates on both sides of the abortion debate in Colorado are circulating dueling ballot proposals for 2024. In order for either amendment to reach the ballot, proponents need to gather more than 124,000 signatures by Aug. 5, 2024.
The pro-life initiative, which would be added to the state statutory code, would stipulate that a living human child “must not be intentionally dismembered, mutilated, poisoned, scalded, starved, stabbed, given toxic injections known to cause death, left to die of the elements for lack of warmth or nutrition,” or otherwise killed.
The pro-abortion measure, meanwhile, would affirm state laws that are already in place that allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. Its language would amend the state constitution to say that the government “shall not deny, impede, or discriminate against the exercise of the right to abortion, including prohibiting health insurance coverage for abortion.”
Abortion is presently legal at all stages of pregnancy in Colorado, one of only a handful of states that allow abortion at any time.
Florida
The pro-abortion group Floridians Protecting Freedom has filed language with the secretary of state that could result in a vote on abortion in 2024. Nearly 900,000 signatures must be gathered by Feb. 1, 2024, for the proposal to reach the ballot.
The proposed language of the measure would add a right to abortion before the point of “viability” to the state’s constitution if 60% of voters approve. It would also allow for abortions later in pregnancy if a woman’s doctor deems it necessary to end the life of her child.
The Florida attorney general in October asked the state Supreme Court to block the effort, arguing that the initiative “does not satisfy the legal requirements for ballot placement.” The justices have yet to rule on the matter.
(Story continues below)
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Click hereFlorida bans abortion after about 16 weeks of pregnancy with limited exceptions.
Maryland
The proposed Maryland Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment would cement an abortion “right” in the state’s constitution and make it impossible for pro-life laws to be enacted. The amendment was added to the ballot by the state Legislature after passing by a supermajority vote (60%). It will ultimately be decided by the state’s voters on Nov. 5, 2024.
Maryland state laws on abortion were extreme even before Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022. In April of that year the Legislature allotted $3.5 million per year for “abortion care” training there.
The Maryland Board of Public Works, meanwhile, in June of this year approved nearly $1.3 million in emergency spending to pay for a stockpile of two abortion drugs in response to a lawsuit that could take one of the drugs off the market.
Maryland currently places no limits on abortion.
Missouri
Activists have proposed language to the secretary of state that could result in a vote on abortion in 2024. The measure, which would amend the state constitution to establish a broad right to abortion, has been entangled in legal wranglings for months. More than 170,000 signatures must be gathered for the proposal to reach the ballot.
A countermeasure, one that would still see abortion legalized in the state, has been proposed by the Missouri Women & Family Research Fund. That group, which was launched by longtime Republican staffer Jamie Corley, argues on its website that the state should provide “reasonable exceptions for abortion care, protection for birth control, and immunity for mothers and doctors against criminal prosecution.” To that end the group submitted multiple proposed constitutional amendments to the state in August.
Abortion is almost completely banned in Missouri with narrow exceptions for the mother’s life and/or health.
Nebraska
The pro-abortion group Protect Our Rights filed language with the secretary of state that could see abortion on the ballot in November. More than 87,000 signatures must be gathered for the proposal to reach the ballot.
The measure, if approved, would “amend the Nebraska Constitution to provide all persons the fundamental right to abortion without interference from the state or its political subdivisions until fetal viability.”
The state earlier this year banned abortion at 12 weeks into pregnancy.
Nevada
A coalition of groups filed language with the secretary of state to put abortion rights to a vote in 2024. The groups must gather more than 102,000 signatures for the proposal to reach the ballot.
The measure, if passed, would affirm current extreme laws on abortion and add to the state constitution a “fundamental right to abortion” up to the point of “fetal viability.” It would also allow for abortions later in pregnancy if a woman’s doctor deems it necessary to end the life of her child.
Earlier this year Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, signed into law a measure to protect abortionists who violate abortion laws in other states and prevent health care licensing boards from disqualifying a person due to his or her participation in providing abortions.
Abortion is legal up until about 24 weeks of pregnancy in the state, or even later in pregnancy if the life of the mother is at risk.
New York
In New York, lawmakers succeeded in getting a proposed amendment on the 2024 ballot. It would add a so-called “right” to abortion to the state constitution in the form of an equal rights amendment.
The proposed amendment to the state constitution was added to the ballot by the state Legislature after passing by a majority vote in both chambers in two consecutive legislative sessions, as required by law.
The amendment stipulates in part that state residents “shall [not] be denied equal rights under the laws [of the state]” on the basis of “pregnancy.” Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts says the amendment would preempt the state from “implementing a state abortion ban,” among other abortion protections.
Abortion is legal in New York through “viability,” though it is largely available after viability as well, given exceptions for the mother’s “mental health.”
South Dakota
In June 2022, a South Dakota Democrat proposed an amendment to the state’s constitution that could result in a vote on abortion in 2024.
The measure would establish “a constitutional right to an abortion” and allow the fatal procedure through all nine months of pregnancy.
Signature-gathering has been spearheaded by the pro-abortion group Dakotans for Health; more than 17,000 signatures must be gathered for the proposal to reach the ballot.
Abortion is almost completely banned in South Dakota barring exceptions to save the mother’s life.
“EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” host Prudence Robertson contributed to this report.
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