The people leading abortion-rights ballot efforts

Abortion questions are on the ballot directly in 10 states across the nation. Behind most campaigns seeking to secure abortion rights are everyday Americans who put in months — even years — of work to get these ballot measures before voters. (Maryland and New York are the exceptions, with ballot questions drafted by lawmakers instead.)

Momentum for citizen-led initiatives swelled after residents in Kansas rejected an anti-abortion constitutional amendment put forth by a Republican-dominated legislature in August 2022, just two months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. The ruling decimated a nearly 50-year-old precedent and led dozens of states to enact abortion bans.

Anti-abortion ballot questions failed in Montana and Kentucky during the 2022 midterm elections, while referendums on reproductive rights succeeded in California, Michigan and Vermont.

Supporters framed restrictions as attacks on personal freedoms, and in some ways, managed to pull the issue away from the partisan sphere. Poll after poll has shown that the majority of Americans believe abortion should should be legal in all or most cases.




https://azmirror.com/2024/10/14/the-people-leading-abortion-rights-ballot-efforts/