Abortion on the ballot: What’s happening in 10 key states

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Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, overturning the nationwide right to abortion, the country has fractured into a patchwork of restrictions on access to the procedure. But in the Nov. 5 elections, 10 states – accounting for one-fifth of the U.S. population – will vote on proposed amendments to their state constitutions, in almost all cases aimed at boosting abortion access.

Easier than amending the U.S. Constitution, this kind of state-by-state modulation illustrates the function that state constitutions are meant to play in American democracy, experts say.

Why We Wrote This

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, it handed the issue of abortion rights to the states – and their voters. This election, more than any other moment to date, will tell us how states respond.

Proposed amendments in three blue states – New York, Colorado, and Maryland – would enshrine abortion rights in their constitutions. Red states, too – Nebraska, Montana, Florida, South Dakota, and Missouri – are voting on varying levels of abortion access. Amendments in Arizona and Nevada would establish abortion rights up to viability.

State constitutions “don’t have the sanctity of the federal Constitution, for better or for worse,” says Justin Long, an associate professor at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. That likely means, he adds, that in coming elections some states will see “a back and forth” over constitutional protections for abortion.

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, eliminating the nationwide right to abortion, it handed the issue to the states – and their voters. The Nov. 5 election, more than any other moment to date, will tell us how states are responding.

Ten states, accounting for one-fifth of the U.S. population, will vote on some kind of abortion amendment to their state constitution. Since the court reversed Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the country has fractured into a patchwork of varying restrictions on access to the procedure. About half the country has measures on the books protecting broad access to abortion and about half the country now has strict limits or an outright ban.

This election will further clarify that landscape, and potentially be decisive in contests further up the ballot by driving turnout. Easier than amending the U.S. Constitution, this kind of state-by-state modulation illustrates the function that state constitutions are meant to play in American democracy, experts say.

Why We Wrote This

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, it handed the issue of abortion rights to the states – and their voters. This election, more than any other moment to date, will tell us how states respond.

State constitutions “don’t have the sanctity of the federal Constitution, for better or for worse,” says Justin Long, an associate professor at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.

That likely means, he adds, that in coming elections some states will see “a back and forth” over constitutional protections for abortion.

Which states are voting? And what are they voting on?

In Nebraska, voters will choose between two competing abortion amendments. One would effectively codify existing state law, which bans abortion in the second and third trimesters, with exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother. The other proposed amendment would protect the right to abortion until viability – considered by most doctors to be around 24 weeks into a pregnancy – or later to save the life of the mother.

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