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Florida is the first state to reject an abortion-rights measure

Even though a majority voted for it

Photograph: AP

Photograph: AP

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WIPING AWAY tears, Lauren Brenzel, who had led Florida’s campaign to enshrine a constitutional right to an abortion, claimed one victory: “a majority of Floridians, in what is the most conservative presidential election in Florida history, just voted to end Florida’s abortion ban.” Though 57% of Floridians supported the amendment (with 97% of the vote counted), it had failed. The measure fell short of the 60% majority required in the state. Florida’s current law will stand: it bans abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, with limited exceptions.

Map: The Economist
Map: The Economist

Nine other states also voted on abortion-related measures on November 5th (see map) and abortion campaigners were disappointed elsewhere too. South Dakotans rejected even a limited loosening of their strict ban. Nebraskans had duelling ballot measures, including one that would have expanded access, but ended up enshrining a 12-week ban into their constitution.

There were some bright spots: a slim-majority of Missourians threw out the state’s complete prohibition. In Arizona and New York amendments passed easily. Other states are still waiting for final results. But the defeats mark the first times state-level abortion-rights campaigners have lost such a ballot campaign since the Supreme Court overturned a national right to the procedure in 2022.

Florida is their most crushing loss. The proposed constitutional amendment would have made abortion accessible until a fetus’s viability, about 24 weeks from conception. Its failure will affect not only more than 4m women in Florida but also millions more across America’s south-east. If the measure had passed, it would have offered relatively permissive access in a region blanketed with highly restrictive laws. None of the states bordering Florida have procedures for citizen-led ballot initiatives that might overturn their laws.

Abortion-rights activists in the sunshine state had raised $110m, a record for such a campaign. Their messaging emphasised health care and freedom from government interference, hoping the state’s social liberalism would help them reach a super-majority. While one famous Floridian, Donald Trump, said that he would be voting against the amendment, he did not join the opposition campaign. Instead Ron DeSantis, the state’s governor, became its figurehead. He labelled the amendment too extreme for Florida and defended the state’s six-week ban.

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The Florida campaign was contentious. The state agency that regulates medical providers published videos opposing the proposed change, and the Department of Health threatened criminal prosecutions against television stations airing supportive advertisements, claiming they could discourage women from seeking emergency care. (A federal judge rejected the threatened sanctions, saying: “It’s the First Amendment, stupid.”)

More than two-fifths of Americans have now voted on abortion since 2022. The breakneck pace of ballot-measure campaigns will slow. Only two more states with bans—Oklahoma and Arkansas—have provisions for citizen-led ballot initiatives. America’s abortion environment is becoming calcified along regional lines, with little appetite for reform in states with restrictive laws. Given that a national law is unlikely to pass in Congress, many Americans will continue to be forced to travel to receive abortions, or receive posted pills. And harrowing accounts of women in restrictive states who have died from complications during miscarriages, or faced serious health risks because doctors were afraid to treat them, will continue to accumulate

Author: Editors Desk

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