Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans in one of seven election victories for abortion rights advocates, while Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place, the Associated Press reports. Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana. Nevada voters approved an amendment, but they’ll need to pass it again it 2026 for it to take effect. Another measure that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York. The results include firsts for the abortion landscape, which underwent a seismic shift in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a ruling that ended a nationwide right to abortion and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states.
Presidential winner Donald Trump has taken inconsistent positions on abortion, including an insistence that it’s an issue best left to the states. Still, the president can have a major impact on abortion policy through executive action.
In the meantime, Missouri is positioned to be the first state where a vote will undo a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with an amendment that would allow lawmakers to restrict abortions only past the point of a fetus’ viability — usually considered after 21 weeks, although there’s no exact defined time frame. The ban, and other restrictive laws, are not automatically repealed. Advocates now must ask courts to overturn laws to square with the new amendment. “Today, Missourians made history and sent a clear message: decisions around pregnancy, including abortion, birth control, and miscarriage care are personal and private and should be left up to patients and their families, not politicians,” said Rachel Sweet of Missourians for Constitutional Freedom. About half of Missouri’s voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 2,200 of the state’s voters. Only about 1 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in all cases; nearly 4 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in most cases.
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