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As the country’s midterm elections took place, several referendums on the legality of abortion also took place in various states. One Republican and one battleground state even chose to protect abortion rights, a landmark victory following the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In four states where access to abortion was on the ballot Tuesday, voters spoke out in favor of this right. In both Democratic states like California and Vermont, as well as disputed Michigan, the right to abortion was enshrined in the state Constitution. In the Republican state of Kentucky, an anti-abortion measure was handed a defeat.
In California, Vermont, and Michigan, the right to abortion will be inscribed and protected in the state constitution.
California voters voted to support the Reproductive Freedom Amendment. This indicates that “the State shall not deny or interfere” with said freedom “of the individual in his most intimate decisions, which include his fundamental right to choose an abortion and his fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.”
In Vermont, it was made official that “an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is fundamental to the freedom and dignity to determine the course of his or her own life.”
In Michigan, voters overturned a 1931 law that banned abortion in all cases and could have been reinstated after the Supreme Court ruling. Voters approved the proposal to amend the Michigan Constitution to include the protection of reproductive rights.
In another state, Montana, governed by a Republican, the population had been questioned about a measure that aims to create criminal penalties for doctors who do not do everything possible to save the life of a baby after birth, even after a attempted abortion. Preliminary results indicated that a majority of people voted “no” on the proposal.
The ‘surprising’ case of Kentucky
In Republican-led Kentucky, a near total ban on abortion was imposed, except when the life of the mother is in danger, following the repeal of Roe VS Wade. Abortion opponents had proposed amending the state Constitution to declare that it does not “protect” this right and had put the change to a vote on Tuesday.
But a majority of voters voted “no” to the state Constitution amendment. The result echoed what happened in another red state, Kansas, where voters in August rejected changing the Constitution to tighten restrictions or ban abortions. In Kentucky, the state Supreme Court next week will review the law that bars women from having abortions even in cases of incest or rape.
These results illustrate that the June Supreme Court decision reopened the abortion debate and that many Americans, even in conservative states, do not want to outlaw abortion. Nationally, about two-thirds of voters say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to AP VoteCast.
The right to abortion as a catalyst for voting
In these elections, what usually happens in all mid-term elections for the US president was expected: that the opposition party would sweep Congress, thus punishing the president.
According to data from the University of California Santa Bárbara, the party in the White House has lost dominance in the Chambers with 28 seats in the Lower House and 4 in the Upper House -on average- from 1934 to 2018. However, the ” red tide” predicted by some pollsters was not seen in these elections.
According to some people experts quoted by the BBCThis was due to the Supreme Court ruling that revoked the guarantee of access to abortion throughout the national territory last June.
This would have led to a greater mobilization of the Democratic bases and of young voters to express their rejection of the decision of the conservative court, according to Ipsos executives pointed out to the British chain.
With EFE, AP and AFP
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