Abortion rights advocates are hoping to build on their winning streak this November, when ballot initiatives could restore, protect or block access in more than a dozen states.
But nearly two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the path to victory has become more complicated for organizers as they navigate a wider range of state laws, new efforts from Republicans to keep abortion off the ballot and internal struggles within the movement over policy and strategy.
Those factors have converged in Florida, where the state’s conservative Supreme Court approved this week the wording of a proposed amendment that would enshrine abortion access into the state constitution despite a legal challenge from the state’s Republican attorney general.
Other initiatives are still in the early phases of gaining ballot access. In Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota, efforts are underway to advance ballot initiatives that would restore or expand abortion access. In states that don’t allow citizen-led initiatives, a handful of legislatures are also working to advance measures to expand, protect or restrict access, with mixed results.
For abortion rights advocates, state ballot initiatives are part of a broader strategy in what they view as a long road to restoring federal abortion access.
“It’s going to take us many decades to fully restore and reimagine a federal right to abortion,” said Sarah Standiford, the national campaigns director for Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “But the important thing is that the initial opportunities and needs are really that we go state by state to restore, protect, and ultimately expand access.”
National Democrats also view abortion rights ballot initiatives as opportunities to boost campaigns for…
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