Voters in ten states, as they choose the next head of the White House, also They are voting this Tuesday on amendments that seek to repeal laws that prohibit or restrict the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
These are Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and New York, Arizona, Florida, Missouri and South Dakota, where abortion rights advocates collected enough signatures to force a vote about enshrining them in their state constitutions, which would nullify those prohibitions and restrictions.
However, This referendum has failed Floridawhich would have enshrined the right to abortion in its state Constitution, according to The Associated Press. This marks a major defeat for proponents of the measure, who had hoped to restore broad access to this procedure in the country’s third-largest state.
Support for the measure, known as Amendment 4, did not reach the 60% necessary for approval. It would have allowed abortions “before viability,” typically around 24 weeks of pregnancy. Florida bans most abortions after six weeksbefore many women know they are pregnant.
The defeat, while not unexpected, halted what had been an unbroken streak of voting victories for abortion rights groups since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Voters sided with abortion rights in all seven states who had questions at the polls on the issue before this year, in states as different as Kansas and California. But the highest vote any of those previous measures had won in red states was 59%, just short of what Florida needed to pass.
The failure of the Florida measure is a political victory for Governor Ron DeSantisRepublican, who had become the face of a well-funded and organized opposition campaign. He spent much of his political capital, and considerable state resources, to defeat her. Another ballot measure strongly opposed by DeSantis and his allies, which would have legalized marijuana in the state, was also defeated.
Currently, Abortion is prohibited without exception in the states of Missouri and South Dakota. While in Arizona the voluntary interruption of pregnancy is prohibited before 15 weeks, in Nebraska before twelve and in Florida before six.