In addition to the election of their president and Congress, Americans voted on Tuesday, November 5, on local policy referendums on various subjects, such as the right to vote, the legalization of cannabis and even local taxes. In ten states, voters voted on measures related to the right to abortion.
The vast majority of these referendums aimed to include the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in the state constitution. In the wake of the annulment in 2022 of the Roe vs Wade decision by the Supreme Court, which guaranteed the right to abortion at the federal level, many activist groups close to the Democratic camp have in fact mobilized to organize this type of local consultation.
Only one referendum had a contrary object. The voters of Nebraska, in a configuration causing confusion, voted on two measures: one enshrining the right to abortion in the Constitution, the other maintaining the ban on abortion from the second trimester of pregnancy .
Read also | The other votes on which Americans voted during the 2024 presidential election
Read later
Measures also approved in four Republican states
At the end of the vote, voters rejected measures for better protection of the right to abortion in only three states out of ten: in Nebraska and South Dakota, a majority of the votes were cast; in Florida, the 57% majority proved insufficient, since the Constitution can only be amended with more than 60% of the votes.
In the three Democratic states – New York, Colorado, Maryland – voters voted for access to abortion. This is also the case in four states which are more of a Republican tradition, Nevada, Arizona, Montana and Missouri. Voters were thus able to both vote for the Republican camp in the presidential and legislative elections, and in favor of the local referendum aimed at better guaranteeing the right to abortion.
For example, in Missouri, Josh Hawley, one of the strongest opponents of abortion rights in Congress, was elected senator (with 55.5% of the vote) while the amendment to lift the ban of the right to abortion in the State was validated with 51.9% of the votes.
Donald Trump welcomed the questioning of the Roe vs. Wade ruling by the Supreme Court in 2022 and was pleased to have contributed to it by the appointment of three conservative judges during his first term. He has since avoided the subject during his campaign, leaving the choice of legislating to the states. Anti-abortion groups, for their part, indicated, even before the election, that they would continue their battle against these local referendums after the election, using all possible legal avenues.
