Reproductive rights issues were not big players in Tuesday’s election, but two state ballot measures that did go before voters had vastly different outcomes.
In Louisiana, voters approved by a vote of 62% to 38% an amendment to the state constitution that would outlaw all abortions in the state if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 1973 law that legalized abortion nationwide. Louisiana now joins three other states — Alabama, Tennessee, and West Virginia — that have such constitutional amendments, which explicitly state that the state’s constitution does not provide for a right to an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research and advocacy organization.
Currently, 10 states — Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah — have laws on the books known as “trigger laws” that would outlaw abortion in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned. Constitutional amendments such as the one passed in Louisiana work in concert with these laws, preventing them from being challenged through the state constitution.
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) cheered the passage of the Louisiana amendment. “Louisianans have confirmed what we already know as medical professionals: elective abortion is not healthcare and it is never necessary,” the group said in a statement. “We hope this win for all our patients — women and preborn children — sends a strong message to politicians making untrue claims about women’s health.”
The Guttmacher Institute disagreed. “The news from Louisiana is heartbreaking,” Elizabeth Nash, the institute’s acting associate director for state policy, said in a statement. “Just 5 months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law restricting abortion access, anti-abortion politicians and activists in the state have made it clear that they will stop at nothing to attack the right to abortion in Louisiana … Every person deserves access to affordable, available and respectful abortion care, regardless of their ZIP code.”
Meanwhile, in Colorado, voters turned down — by a vote of 41% to 59% — a measure that would have banned all abortions in the state after 22 weeks, with no exceptions for rape, incest, health of the pregnant woman, or a lethal fetal diagnosis.
AAPLOG had no comment on the Colorado measure’s defeat, while Guttmacher’s Nash called it “fantastic news.” “Pregnancies can be complicated, and it is cruel and coercive to try to impose laws that neglect these realities,” she said. “Some people need abortions later in pregnancy, and they deserve safe and compassionate care. For the 1.2 million women of reproductive age in Colorado — as well as pregnant people all across the surrounding region and beyond — the rejection of this harmful ballot initiative protects access to this critical health service.”
Source: MedicalNewsToday.com
