This is the first failure of a direct vote on abortion in the United States since the Supreme Court struck down federal protection of the right to abortion in June 2022.
A citizen initiative referendum in favor of the right to abortion organized Tuesday in Florida in parallel with the presidential election did not collect enough votes to win, according to American media. This is the first failure of a direct vote on abortion in the United States since the Supreme Court struck down federal protection of the right to abortion in June 2022 and a blow for defenders of the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion).
For more than two years, the right to abortion had in fact always won at the polls, even in the conservative states of Kansas and Kentucky. In Florida, the third most populous state in the country and which voted on Tuesday for Republican Donald Trump in the presidential election, the amendment aimed to reinstate the possibility of performing an abortion until the fetus is viable (around 24 weeks of pregnancy). , instead of six weeks currently.
60% “yes” required
He was to collect 60% of «oui» to be adopted, the highest threshold of the ten American states where referendums on the issue were organized on Tuesday. But this threshold was not reached even though the measure was supported by a majority, according to the media. Defenders of the measure hoped that Florida, surrounded by states that are very restrictive on the issue of abortion, could once again become a refuge for women in the southeast of the United States.
“A majority of Florida voters made it clear tonight that they want their reproductive rights restored. But because of a high threshold of 60% and the state's disinformation campaign, they must continue to live in fear, uncertainty and refusal of care. inherited from the Supreme Court's decision in 2022, reacted Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
In a press release from the anti-abortion doctors' association Florida Physicians Against Amendment 4, Christina Pena, a gynecologist in Miami, on the contrary welcomed the rejection of a measure which “would have been disastrous for women and doctors”. Almost all of the referendums organized on Tuesday on the subject aim to enshrine the right to abortion in states where it has remained legal, or to reverse restrictions or bans adopted since 2022.
Women forced to travel to other states
After the historic decision of the Supreme Court in 2022, states have regained full freedom to legislate in this area. Around twenty of them have since implemented partial or total restrictions. The subject was put at the center of the campaign by Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, who placed herself as a protector of women's rights, and denounced the tragic situations in which some of them found themselves because of these restrictions. .
Many women are forced to travel to other states to obtain an abortion, and some have suffered serious complications, with doctors fearing to intervene in miscarriages or other problems or risk being accused of carry out an illegal abortion.
