The absence of a constitutional guarantee to the right to an abortion has led to a deeply inconsistent landscape of reproductive policy across the map. This year, voters in many states resoundingly elected officials who stood for abortion rights over those who vowed to enact restrictions. Yet, state lawmakers elsewhere implemented draconian abortion bans that would have been unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade, and we saw officials go to great lengths to prosecute, intimidate and shame individuals under those laws.
Voters repeatedly affirmed their support and rebuked Republicans with hard-line anti-abortion positions.
Where abortion rights were at stake, voters repeatedly affirmed their support and rebuked Republicans with hard-line anti-abortion positions. In Virginia, Democrats who campaigned heavily on protecting abortion access took back control of the state Legislature in the midterm election, delivering a blow to state Republicans’ and Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s hard-line anti-abortion platform. In Kentucky, voters re-elected Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear to a second term over state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, whose long anti-abortion record was front and center in the race. In Pennsylvania, Democrat Dan McCaffery clinched a seat on the state Supreme Court over his Republican rival, who was endorsed by anti-abortion groups. McCaffery’s victory further shored up the defense against anti-abortion attacks in the swing state.
Yet, following a string of ballot amendment wins last year — including in Ohio, where voters emphatically backed enshrining reproductive rights in the state Constitution — Republican lawmakers have resorted to denying the results, attempting to strip courts of the ability to interpret the amendments, or trying to make it harder for citizen-led initiatives to appear on ballots.
Elsewhere, nightmare post-Dobbs environments have emerged. According to a report from the Abortion Care Network, almost two dozen independent abortion clinics…
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