Abortion rights win in Arizona, but not in Florida

(Keystone-ATS) The result in Florida constitutes the first failure of a direct vote on abortion in the United States since the Supreme Court overturned federal protection of this right in 2022. A hard blow for defenders of the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG).

For more than two years, the right to abortion had in fact always won at the polls, even in conservative states like Kansas and Kentucky.

The subject was put at the center of the presidential campaign by Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, who positioned herself as protector of women’s rights against her rival Donald Trump. The Republican had profoundly overhauled the Supreme Court before it made its historic decision in the summer of 2022.

The Democratic Party also relied on these elections to mobilize its electorate and encourage them to go to the polls.

Amendment to the Constitution

In Arizona, a key state for the outcome of the presidential election, voters voted to amend the state Constitution. The proposal restores the possibility of carrying out an abortion until the fetus is viable (around 24 weeks of pregnancy) instead of the current 15 weeks.

In Florida, the amendment also aimed to reinstate the possibility of carrying out an abortion until the fetus is viable. But the limit in the state is currently six weeks, before many women realize they are pregnant.

In this state, which voted mainly for Republican Donald Trump in the presidential election on Tuesday, the measure had to receive 60% “yes” to be adopted, the highest threshold of the ten American states where referendums on the issue were organized. Tuesday.

Defenders of the amendment 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.

“Refusal of care”

According to media reports, 57% of voters in Florida favored the measure.

“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 denial of care,” responded Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

In a press release from an anti-abortion association, 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 reverse restrictions or bans adopted since 2022, or to enshrine the right to abortion in states where it has remained legal.

Colorado and Maryland are in this second case, and the referendums organized there won, according to American media.

States decide

After the historic decision of the Supreme Court in 2022, states regained full latitude to legislate in this area, and around twenty of them have since put in place partial or total restrictions.

Throughout her campaign, Kamala Harris denounced the tragic situations in which some women find themselves because of these bans or restrictions.

Many 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 punished. accused of performing an illegal abortion.