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Voters across the country scored a series of decisive abortion-rights victories Tuesday in the first national elections since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June
The biggest surprise came in Republican-leaning Kentucky, where an anti-abortion amendment was defeated, opening a potential path to restoring abortion access in a state with one of the most restrictive bans of the country.
In Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) was re-elected in part by presenting herself as an abortion rights advocate, voters approved a ballot initiative that will enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, preventing that the 1931 abortion ban go into effect. .
On Nov. 9, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) made a comment after being re-elected as governor. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Nick Hagen/The Washington Post)
And in North Carolina, Republicans fell short of a veto-proof legislative supermajority, ensuring Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper will continue to have the power to block abortion restrictions in a state that has become a critical access point for people seeking abortions in the Southeast. .
Tracking the results where access to abortion hangs in the balance
The abortion-rights streak confirmed a political trend that emerged in August, two months after the fall of Roe, when conservative Kansas voters rejected an anti-abortion amendment similar to the one defeated in Kentucky. The results showed how, while GOP lawmakers have seized the moment to enact more restrictions, much of the public sees the issue differently: About 6 in 10 midterm voters say abortion should to be legal in all or most cases, according to exit polls.
The network’s exit polls also found that nearly 3 in 10 voters nationally said abortion was the most important issue in their vote, and that about 4 in 10 voters nationally said that they were “angry” because Roe was overturned
A “unifying message” was emerging from the 2022 midterms, said Tamarra Wieder, state director of Kentucky Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates: “Abortion transcends party lines.”
Activists on both sides of the issue were closely monitoring a handful of major statewide contests where the future of abortion access continues to hang in the balance. Several gubernatorial contests were seen as pivotal for abortion rights, including in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where Democrats Josh Shapiro and Tony Evers were projected, as well as Arizona, where the contest is still too close to call.
Arizona is one of several Republican-controlled states pointing to a century-old law as a reason to roll back access to abortions. (Video: Julie Yoon, Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post)
In Michigan, nearly half of voters said abortion was the most important issue in deciding their vote, according to exit polls, ranking well above inflation as the most important. Abortion was also the top voting concern for Pennsylvania voters, with more than a third of voters selecting abortion as their top issue, according to exit polls.
Voters in solidly Democratic states also voted pro-abortion on Tuesday, with California and Vermont each passing an amendment that will explicitly protect abortion rights in their state constitutions.
Arizona court halts enforcement of nearly total abortion ban
In Kentucky, many Republican voters appeared to be voting on the side of abortion rights, even as they overwhelmingly re-elected one of the Senate’s most conservative members, Sen. Rand Paul. Kentucky’s referendum would have amended the state constitution to clarify that it does not protect the right to abortion, making it virtually impossible to challenge anti-abortion legislation in court.
Abortion has been almost completely illegal in Kentucky since the summer. For abortions to resume, abortion rights advocates would do an additional victory is needed next week, when the Kentucky Supreme Court will have a chance to decide whether the state constitution protects abortion rights.
Kentucky judge reinstates state abortion ban, reversing lower court
Dawn Riley, a 55-year-old independent agricultural consultant from Kentucky, said the anti-abortion amendment was “a leap too far” for many.
“I really feel that ultimately people don’t want this intrusion into their privacy,” said Riley, who worked for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) in the late 1980s. “I think that the arguments of children and grandchildren with fewer rights than their mothers will resonate. Moving forward and not turning back the clock is a big part of the message.”
During the campaign, Kentucky Planned Parenthood’s Wieder said her team often encountered Republican voters who planned to cross party lines on the amendment. Many voters expressed concern about women being denied health care across the country because of recent abortion bans, she added.
“This issue really resonated with them,” Wieder said.
The playbook deployed by the abortion rights movement in Kentucky mirrored what was successful in Kansas this summer. Protect Kentucky Access, the group of abortion rights organizations working to defeat the amendment, hired the same campaign manager who had led the Kansas effort and deployed some of the same messages they believed worked in Kansas: That Americans should be free to get health care. decisions without the participation of the government.
How Kansas Became an Abortion Rights Defender
Protect Kentucky Access sought to broaden its supporter base, trying to appeal to both traditional supporters of abortion rights and small-government advocates who might be wary of government overreach.
The anti-abortion camp, “Yes to Life,” focused on activating Kentucky’s significant anti-abortion electorate. According to the Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study, 57 percent of Kentuckians believed abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, making Kentucky one of the most anti-abortion states in the country.
On the finer points of the message, groups on each side of the Kentucky referendum frustrated their opponents with what they argued were misleading messages.
Titus Folks, a 28-year-old anti-abortion activist working in Kentucky with Students for Life, blamed “misinformation” for the amendment’s failure, accusing abortion rights supporters of misinterpreting the ballot initiative in the your campaign
“We’ve had a lot of confusion about what these ballot initiatives mean and what they do,” he said. “It’s hard for people to make sense of it.”
The people said they were confident that public opinion would “stabilise” on abortion in the coming year, with people eventually becoming more supportive of anti-abortion measures.
Michigan’s abortion ballot measure will go before voters in November
Several Michigan voters, including those who do not identify with a political party, said they voted for the measure so that politicians would not have a say in whether a woman can request an abortion.
Vreni Merrell-Myers, 22, and her father, Kirby Merrell, knocked door after door Monday night in Royal Oak, Michigan, the first time the couple had inquired.
Merrell-Myers said it was “terrifying” to think that a doctor could lose his medical license for trying to help her access basic health care.
“Cast your vote,” Kirby Merrell responded, referencing a phrase abortion rights supporters have used to rally their base to defeat anti-abortion candidates.
Kim Bellware reported from Louisville. Rachel Roubein reported from Detroit. Emily Guskin contributed to this report.