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Ten states across the country could enshrine the right to abortion in their state constitutions this year.
Seven states have directly voted on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 — and abortion rights advocates are so far undefeated with ballot measures. The most recent win came in November when Ohio became the latest state to vote to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution.
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The proposed amendments have the potential to reshape abortion access around the country and even mobilize voters behind Democrats in critical 2024 battleground states and races. Abortion rights ballot measures outperformed Democrats on the ballot in California, Michigan and Vermont in the 2022 midterms.
Currently, 23 states enable citizens to put constitutional amendments on the ballot, while others only allow a state legislature to put them before the voters. While not all ballot measures are necessarily constitutional amendments, most of the efforts in 2024 are behind reshaping state constitutions to enshrine reproductive rights.
Ballot measure campaigns are highly expensive, time-consuming endeavors. In many states, Republican officials have endeavored to keep abortion measures off the ballot with legal challenges, shape the measures’ summary language and inflate their estimated cost.
In one case, they succeeded at stopping a measure from going in front of voters: Organizers in Arkansas submitted more signatures than required to put abortion rights on the ballot but lost a legal battle with the secretary of state’s office. The measure will not appear on the November ballot.
Here’s an overview of where abortion will — and could be — directly on the ballot in 2024 and the challenges advocates are facing in the states.
Arizona
Arizona’s abortion rights ballot measure is certified for the November ballot as Proposition 139.
Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive rights groups, submitted over 820,000 signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot that would guarantee a right to abortion. The measure would protect abortion rights up to the point of fetal viability, which is determined by physicians, but is usually around 22 to 25 weeks of pregnancy. More than one in five registered voters in Arizona signed petitions to get the measure on the ballot, the group said.
- Current law: While lawmakers two weeks earlier had passed a bill repealing the ban, the repeal won’t go into effect until 90 days after the ongoing legislative session ends. That end could be late into the summer, meaning the old ban could still take effect, even if for a short period of time. Currently, Arizona bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest.
- Number of signatures needed to make the ballot: 383,923
- Deadline to submit signatures: July 4
- Political landscape: Arizona is a swing state in the presidential race; President Joe Biden won in 2020 by just over 10,000 votes. Abortion is also likely to be a significant issue in Arizona’s competitive U.S. Senate election.
Colorado
Coloradans will be voting on a proposed constitutional amendment that would repeal the state’s ban on public funding for abortions, which bars state employees or residents on Medicaid from having abortions covered by insurance. Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom, a coalition of abortion rights groups, announced April 18 that they’d gotten more than double the number of signatures needed ahead of the April 26 deadline.
Two anti-abortion activists failed to get the required number of signatures for a proposed measure that would have made abortion a crime and defined life as beginning at fertilization, Westword reported
Constitutional amendments require a 55 percent supermajority to pass in Colorado.
- Current law: Abortion is legally protected with no gestational limits in Colorado. Lawmakers established a legal right to abortion in 2022 and passed additional protections for patients traveling to Colorado from other states. Voters have also repeatedly rejected constitutional amendments that would restrict abortion in the state.
- Number of signatures needed: 124,238
- Deadline to submit signatures: August 5
- Political landscape: Biden carried Colorado by 13 points in 2020. Democrats will target two competitive U.S. House districts, including Rep. Lauren Boebert’s Western Colorado district.
Florida
Floridians will be voting on Amendment 4, a constitutional amendment on the November 2024 ballot that would guarantee a right to abortion up until the point of fetal viability. For years, Florida has been a critical access point for abortion as its neighboring states have heavily restricted or banned the procedure. Floridians Protecting Freedom, a coalition of abortion groups, has secured the required number of signatures to get on the ballot and the state Supreme Court approved the measure’s language in April, allowing the campaign to move forward.
Constitutional amendments require a 60 percent supermajority to pass in Florida, and mobilizing Latinx voters will be critical for the amendment’s success.
- Current law: As of May 1, abortion in Florida is banned after six weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape and incest up to 15 weeks.
- Political landscape: Florida and its 30 Electoral College votes hold significant sway in the presidential race, though the once-swing state has trended Republican in recent election cycles. Florida will also have a competitive U.S. Senate race on the ballot.
- Challenges: The state’s Financial Impact Estimating Conference (FEIC), which includes members chosen by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP state House speaker, produced a fiscal statement in July estimating the measure will decrease live births, increase abortion rates and potentially cost taxpayers money in increased litigation.
The fiscal estimate drew rebuke and legal challenges from the Yes on 4 Campaign, with campaign director Lauren Brenzel calling it a “smokescreen” and a “desperate ploy” to “manipulate voters.”
“We’ve put in the work to ensure our initiative meets constitutional standards, and the State should be held to the same standards of clarity and accuracy,” Brenzel said July 22. “Financial impact statements must be straightforward, clear and legally spot-on.”
Maryland
Maryland voters will be voting on a constitutional amendment put on the ballot by the Democratic-controlled legislature that would enshrine a broad right to abortion and other reproductive rights.
- Current law: Abortion is legal up to the point of fetal viability in Maryland. The right to abortion has been protected under state law since the 1990s.
- Political landscape: Biden carried Maryland by 33 points in 2020.
Missouri
The Missouri secretary of state formally certified an abortion rights measure to appear on the November ballot as Amendment 3.
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, a coalition of abortion rights advocates, submitted more than 380,000 signatures for a proposed amendment to establish a constitutional right to abortion to the point of fetal viability and to other forms of reproductive health care, including contraception access and miscarriage care.
- Current law: Abortion is banned with no exceptions for rape or incest in Missouri.
- Number of signatures needed: A minimum of 171,592
- Deadline to submit signatures: May 5
- Challenges: The proposed ballot language for all the measures was tied up in court battles waged primarily by the state’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who unsuccessfully pushed to inflate the estimated cost of the measures, and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who suggested he’d refuse to do his job if an abortion measure passes.The state Supreme Court rejected Ashcroft’s proposed ballot summary language as overtly partisan. Anti-abortion groups also led “decline-to-sign” campaigns to try to dissuade voters from signing initiative petitions.
- Political landscape: Trump won Missouri by 15 points in 2020.
Montana
The Montana secretary of state certified an abortion rights measure, CI-128, to appear on the ballot in November. Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, a coalition of Montana abortion rights groups, submitted over 117,000 signatures for the proposed amendment, which would protect abortion up until the point of fetal viability.
- Current law: Abortion is legal to the point of fetal viability in Montana, though lawmakers have repeatedly tried to restrict the procedure. The state Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that the state constitution’s right to privacy includes a right to abortion.
- Number of signatures needed: 60,359
- Deadline to submit signatures: Organizers had until June 21 to submit signatures to county clerks, who must submit signatures to the secretary of state’s office for certification by July 19.
- Political landscape: Trump carried Montana by 16 points in 2020. Red state Democratic Sen. Jon Tester faces a competitive reelection fight in 2024.
- Challenges: The Montana Supreme Court has allowed the proposed measure to move forward, rejecting a challenge from GOP Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who argued the first version of Planned Parenthood’s proposed language was “legally insufficient” and “logrolls multiple distinct political choices into a single initiative.” The court also struck Knudsen’s proposed fiscal note estimating the measure would have a fiscal impact on the state.
Nebraska
Nebraskans will be voting on two competing abortion ballot measures in 2024.
The measure backed by Protect Our Rights, a coalition of advocates, would guarantee a constitutional right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability. The other amendment, backed by anti-abortion groups, would ban most abortions after about 12 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for threats to the life of the pregnant patient, rape and incest — similar to current law.
The measure that gains the highest number of votes will pass.
- Current law: Abortion is banned after 12 weeks in Nebraska with exceptions for rape, incest and threat to the life of the pregnant patient.
- Number of signatures needed: Signatures from 10 percent of Nebraska registered voters, or a little over 120,000 people
- Deadline to submit signatures: July 5
- Political landscape: Nebraska splits up its electoral votes by congressional district, and the Omaha-based 2nd District is a battleground in both the U.S. House and the Electoral College; Trump won the state overall by 19 points in 2020, but Biden carried the 2nd District with 56 percent of the vote.
Nevada
Abortion rights advocates on May 20 submitted over 200,000 signatures to get a measure on the 2024 ballot that would establish a constitutional right to abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. On June 29, the Secretary of State’s office certified the measure to appear on the November ballot.
Proposed constitutional amendments must pass in two consecutive election cycles in Nevada. If the measure gets on the ballot and passes in 2024, it will go before voters again in 2026.
- Current law: Abortion is already legal up to 24 weeks in Nevada. In the 1990s, lawmakers codified a right to abortion in state law.
- Signatures needed: 102,362
- Deadline to submit signatures: June 26
- Political landscape: Nevada is a critical battleground state in the 2024 presidential race; Biden carried the state by 2.4 points in 2020. Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is also facing a competitive reelection race that will be key to Democrats’ hopes of holding control of the U.S. Senate.
- Challenges:A judge ruled in November that the first proposed measure filed by Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom violated Nevada’s requirement that ballot measures address a single subject, leading backers to submit a new initiative with narrower language in December. A judge approved that second proposed measure in January. But in a win for the coalition, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the original ballot petition language they submitted in November 2023 was constitutional and did not violate the single subject rule.
New York
New Yorkers will be voting on a broad equal rights amendment that would ban a range of discrimination and establish a right to abortion and other reproductive health care in the state constitution. The measure has been passed twice by the legislature and could now go to voters in 2024 for final approval, pending ongoing legal challenges.
- Current law: Abortion is protected under state law. Lawmakers in 2019 removed abortion from being regulated in the state’s criminal code and allowed the procedure at any stage of pregnancy to save the patient’s life or health.
- Political landscape: New York has several competitive U.S. House races on the ballot and will be critical to Democrats’ chances of taking back control of the chamber. Some Democrats have said they hope the equal rights amendment will boost turnout for Democrats.
- Challenges: A local judge sided with a challenge from a Republican state lawmaker in striking the measure from the November ballot, ruling on May 7 that lawmakers didn’t follow the proper technical procedure to put the amendment before the voters. But the ruling was overturned after a challenge from New Yorkers for Equal Rights, the coalition supporting the amendment, with the state’s highest court ruling in July that the measure qualifies for the ballot.
South Dakota
The secretary of state’s office formally certified an abortion rights measure, Amendment G, to appear on the November ballot.
In May, the grassroots group Dakotans for Health submitted over 55,000 signatures to put a measure on the ballot that would guarantee a right to abortion in the first trimester. It would only allow the state to regulate abortion in ways “reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman” in the second trimester.
Major reproductive rights organizations including the ACLU and the regional Planned Parenthood affiliate groups aren’t supporting the proposal, arguing the measure doesn’t go far enough and that Dakotans for Health rushed drafting and submitting the language.
- Current law: Abortion is banned in South Dakota with no exceptions for rape or incest. Voters rejected anti-abortion constitutional amendments in 2006 and 2008.
- Signatures needed: 35,017
- Deadline to submit signatures: May 7.
- Political landscape: Trump carried South Dakota by 26 points in 2020.
Where abortion has won on the ballot since 2022
California
California voted to enshrine a right to abortion and contraception in its state constitution in 2022. The measure passed with 67 percent of the vote; Biden won the state by 29 points in 2020.
Michigan
Michigan established a constitutional right to abortion and other reproductive health care, including contraception, miscarriage care, fertility treatment, and pre- and post-natal care in 2022. The measure passed with 57 percent of the vote; Biden won the state by three points in 2020.
Ohio
Ohio voted to protect a right to abortion up until the point of fetal viability as well as contraception, miscarriage care and fertility treatment in its state constitution in 2023. The measure passed with 57 percent of the vote; Trump won the state by eight points in 2020.
Vermont
Vermont voted to add a right to “personal reproductive autonomy,” including abortion, in its state constitution in 2022. The measure passed with 77 percent of the vote; Biden won by 35 points in 2020.
