WASHINGTON (AP) — Abortion rights advocates prevailed on seven ballot measures across the U.S. in Tuesday’s election and lost on three.
The losses are the first on statewide reproductive rights ballot measures anywhere in the U.S. since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, a ruling that struck down the nearly 50-year nationwide right to abortion, proving that abortion opponents can win on ballot measures.
MISSOURI is the most populous state where a ballot measure could roll back a current ban on abortions at all stages of pregnancy.
But the work isn’t done there.
Planned Parenthood affiliates that operate in Missouri filed in a state court Wednesday seeking to invalidate the state’s abortion ban and several laws that regulate the care.
The Missouri amendment, which is to take effect Dec. 5, does not specifically override any state laws. Instead, the measure left it to advocates to ask courts to knock down bans that they believe would now be unconstitutional.
Planned Parenthood leaders said Wednesday on a Zoom call with reporters that they want to start offering abortions at clinics in Columbia, Kansas City and St. Louis if they get the judicial ruling they’re requesting — starting with blocking enforcement of laws on the book.
“This is only the first step to realizing and fully implementing the protections of Amendment 3. It’s certainly not the last step,” said Richard Muniz, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers.
Clinics had stopped providing abortions in Missouri even before the state’s ban took effect in 2022. They said a list of regulations made it impossible for them to operate. In its legal filing, the Planned Parenthood affiliate that covers much of the state says the onerous requirements include clinicians who provide abortion have surgical licenses and that they conduct pelvic exams on all patients — even if they offer only medication abortions.
“Some of these patients choose medication abortion precisely because they do not want instruments inserted into their vagina,” Dr. Selina Sandoval, an associate medical director for Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said in a legal filing. “I cannot and will not subject my patients to unnecessary exams.”
Planned Parenthood also objects to laws requiring clinicians to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, mandating a 72-hour waiting period for abortions and banning telemedicine for abortion. Besides the ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, the group is calling for having other bans that kick in after eight, 14, 18 and 20 weeks of pregnancy to be struck down.
ABORTION RIGHTS advocates heralded victories at the ballot box as a signal of widespread support for abortion rights, even in conservative states.
The three states where abortion measures were defeated had special circumstances that weren’t present in the others.
In Florida, the threshold for passing a constitutional amendment is 60% while most states require a simple majority. Most voters supported adding abortion rights — but it fell short of the requirement.
There, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican with a national profile, also presented a challenge to proponents by steering state GOP funds to counter the measure and defending a state agency for publishing a webpage attacking it, among other government efforts.
