Successive referendums in some states guaranteed reproductive rights after the Dobbs ruling. But is it enough?
Reproductive rights were guaranteed in some states following the Dobbs ruling through powerful referendums. But is that sufficient? Reproductive rights were guaranteed in some states following the Dobbs ruling by powerful referendums. But is that sufficient?
Successive referendums in some states guaranteed reproductive rights after the Dobbs ruling. But is it enough?
Almost immediately after the Dobbs decision was issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022, fourteen states—Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia—made abortion illegal.. . But even before the decision was released, pro-choice advocates throughout the country were organizing and raising money to help those seeking abortions get to places where the procedure was less restricted or, post-Dobbs, still legal. One group, the National Network of Abortion Funds, which is composed of more than 200 abortion funds, has worked to fund transportation, hotel rooms, meals, childcare, and the procedure itself, for people seeking terminations.. . The pro-choice community has also mobilized to put the right to abortion into their state constitutions and have brought the issue directly to voters through ballot initiatives and referendums. It’s been a winning strategy. To date, four states—California, Ohio, Michigan, and Vermont—have successfully affirmed abortion access; three others, Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana, have defeated anti-choice ballot measures.. . The pro-choice community has mobilized to put the right to abortion into their state constitutions and have brought the issue directly to voters through ballot initiatives and referendums. It’s been a winning strategy.. . In November, voters in numerous states will have a chance to affirm or deny abortion access within their boundaries. But while some advocates see this as progress, others see it as a distraction.. . Merle Hoffman, author of Choices: A Post-Roe Abortion Manifesto and founder and CEO of the Choices Women’s Medical Center in Queens, New York, for one, sees ballot measures as a tactical mistake. “There’s a lack of national vision,” she tells The Progressive. “The normalization of a state patchwork for abortion access is unacceptable.”. . Ryan Stitzlein, Vice President of Political and Government Relations at Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), strongly disagrees with Hoffman, arguing that activists have to deal with the current reality and defend abortion access where, when, and however possible. “We’ve been in an all-out crisis for reproductive freedom since Dobbs, and we need to use every tool in our tool shed to expand access for everyone,” says Stitzlein. “This issue is front of mind for many people. Our mission is in our name— ‘reproductive freedom for all’—and we have to fight for this in every way we can, and at both the federal and state levels.”. . The goal, Stitzlein explains, is to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, federal legislation to restore the right to abortion in all fifty states. But until this is enacted, he sees other tactics, including state ballot initiatives, as key.. . Several ballot measures are already in motion and voters in New York and Maryland are gearing up to cast ballots in November. The measures vary: In New York, a state Equal Rights Amendment will ask voters to codify abortion and LGBTQ+ rights in their state constitution, while Maryland voters will simply be asked to approve a state constitutional amendment to establish a right to reproductive freedom, including abortion.. . Activists in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and South Dakota are pushing for measures to permanently affirm the right to abortion in their states. While the requirements to launch referendums differ, the Council of State Governments reports that eighteen states allow citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to go before the electorate.. . All require the collection of signatures by a specific date and, as currently written, all of the proposed measures will give pregnant people access to abortion until fetal viability.. . The most contentious ballot battle will likely take place in Florida.. . Bree Wallace is the director of case management at the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund, one of five abortion funds in the Sunshine State. Right now, she tells The Progressive, the state allows abortion up to “fifteen weeks and six days” of a pregnancy.. . “Pro-choice activists believe that the privacy clause of the state constitution, passed in 1989, protects the right to abortion, but our [state] supreme court disagrees,” Wallace adds. “In September, the court heard a case brought by Planned Parenthood and will soon issue a decision about whether the fifteen-week abortion ban is constitutional. People from all over the South come to Florida for abortion care. This could be upended if the court upholds the ban.”. . The stakes could not be higher. As Florida senate minority leader Lauren Book explains, “We expect the court to uphold the fifteen-week ban, which is particularly dangerous because the ban was written in such a way that it will immediately trigger a six-week ban,” effectively making abortion unavailable in the state.. . To counteract this, Book has joined thousands of volunteers to collect signatures to put abortion before voters this fall. More than 910,000 people—including registered Republicans, Democrats, and independents—signed a petition, the first step in getting the issue on the November ballot. The state supreme court now has to approve ballot language; a hearing on this is expected to take place on February 7.. . “We’ve been in an all-out crisis for reproductive freedom since Dobbs, and we need to use every tool in our tool shed to expand access for everyone.” — Ryan Stitzlein, Reproductive Freedom for All. . Not surprisingly, anti-abortion activists are working hard to derail the effort, with Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody deriding amendment language as vague. She further charges that it gives clinics the right to self-regulate.. . Pro-choice supporters, meanwhile, claim that the language—“No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health”—is abundantly clear.. . If the Act is granted ballot access, it will require 60 percent of voters to approve it.. . “In Florida, we are seeing dueling efforts on abortion,” Serra Sippel, interim executive director of the Brigid Alliance, a referral-based service that provides logistical support to people needing to travel for abortion care, says. “On one hand, there are efforts to restrict abortion access and, on the other, there are efforts to enshrine abortion in the state constitution.”. . People’s lives are at issue, Sippel says, which is why the Alliance stresses the impact of restrictions on individual women, girls, and families. The average person, she reports, needs around $3,000 and has to travel approximately 1,800 miles roundtrip for needed healthcare.. . This does not matter to antiabortion activists.. . Danielle Pimentel, policy counsel at Americans United for Life (AUL), an anti-abortion organization that will be working in Florida and other states where abortion measures are on the ballot, does not believe that abortion can ever be in a person’s best interest. AUL, she says, will “educate the public” about “the reality of ballot measures that seek to authorize abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and that encourage late-term abortions.”. . That none of the proposed amendments will do this—they do not protect abortion after fetal viability, let alone into the ninth month unless it is the only way to save the pregnant person’s life—goes unmentioned. Regardless, few in the pro-choice community are fazed by either the anti-abortion movement’s distortions or their outright lies.. . As Book explains, “We are in survival mode and need to protect women and girls in our state and in every state. We’re prepared to fight on all fronts and do what we need to do, in a grassroots, coordinated way, to get people the care they need and simultaneously change the political landscape.”
