This coming November 5, voters across the country will be presented with ballot measures that may radically change the status of abortion laws and preborn protections in their state. Here’s where these important measures will be on the ballot (to date); more information on each state’s particular measures can be found here.
Arizona
Arizona’s ballot measure, Proposition 139, would make it so that “each individual has a fundamental right” to abortion, and the state cannot “interfere” with that right before “fetal viability” – unless justified by a “compelling state interest.”
‘Viability’ is an arbitrary pregnancy marker usually considered to be around 24 weeks, though infants have survived premature birth as early as 21 weeks. Those in the abortion industry have even claimed that ‘viability’ is a meaningless and subjective standard, and that it is not only gestational age that an abortionist would use to determine if a child would be able to survive outside the womb.
Abortion opponents also warn that the law’s vague language could allow abortions all the way to birth while stripping some of the state’s current preborn protections.
Colorado
Colorado’s Right to Abortion and Health Insurance Coverage Initiative would add the following language to the state’s constitution, which includes making insurance pay for abortions:
The right to abortion is hereby recognized. Government shall not deny, impede, or discriminate against the exercise of that right, including prohibiting health insurance coverage for abortion.
Unlike others, this amendment does not appear to have any viability restriction, likely because Colorado is one of nine states that already has no gestational limits on abortion. This amendment would also require the use of public funds for abortion. It must receive 55% of the vote, not just a simple majority, to be approved.
Florida
Florida’s Amendment 4 would allow abortion up to fetal viability and all the way to birth if determined “necessary” by a “healthcare provider.” It’s important to note that “health” is arbitrary and can even include mental health or how a woman is feeling. In addition, the “healthcare provider” determining whether or not the abortion is necessary would include the abortionist being paid to abort the preborn child. The amendment states:
No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.
Sixty percent (60%) of voters need to approve the amendment in order for it to pass.
READ: Would ‘pregnancy outcome’ laws protect women who throw their babies in the trash?
Maryland
Maryland lawmakers decided in 2023 to add an abortion amendment to this year’s ballot, the Maryland Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment.
The measure would add a new section to the state’s constitution that guarantees a right to “reproductive freedom,” defined to include “the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.”
Missouri
Missouri’s Amendment 3 would add a new section titled “The Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative” to the state constitution. Like similar ballot measures, it would allow abortion up to the point of “fetal viability,” while also leaving enough ambiguity in the language to permit legal abortions up until birth.
The amendment groups together prenatal care, miscarriage, and intentional killing via abortion by allowing “the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive health care, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.”
Montana
Montana’s ballot measure, CI-128, would allow abortions through viability and could legally allow the death of the preborn child all the way until birth. The amendment could also strip common-sense safety measures, like abortion facility safety and health code standards. A portion of the amendment says:
There is a right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion. This right should not be denied or burdened unless justified by a compelling government interest achieved by the least restrictive means.
Nebraska
Nebraska voters will see two different measures regarding abortion on the ballot this November.
The first, the “Protect Our Rights” initiative, would allow a “fundamental right” to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. It would also eliminate health and safety standards meant to protect women, and it would allow minors to receive an abortion without parental consent.
The other ballot measure, the “Protect Women and Children” initiative, would maintain the current status-quo in the state, which allows abortion through the first 12 weeks. Though it does allow abortion, some pro-lifers are lobbying in favor of this amendment because it would limit the killing of preborn children to the first trimester. More information about these two measures can be found here.
According to NBC News, if both amendments pass, the one with the most votes will go into effect.
Nevada
Nevada Question 6, the Reproductive Rights Amendment, solidifies the position of abortion in an already pro-abortion state. The measure would secure “a fundamental, individual right to abortion” with a stipulation that the state can regulate a “provision of abortion after fetal viability … except where necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant individual.”
Per state law, even if the measure is approved by a majority of voters this November, it still needs to appear on the 2026 ballot and be approved once again for the constitutional amendment to take effect.
New York
New York’s Equal Protection of Law Amendment would amend Article 1, Section 11 of the New York Constitution. If passed, it would outlaw discrimination based on “pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care and autonomy.”
Though the amendment does not mention abortion outright, many warn it will allow abortion for any reason, and that the term “pregnancy outcomes” could allow for infanticide.
South Dakota
Though nearly all preborn children are protected from abortion in South Dakota, abortion supporters are trying to undo these important protections with Constitutional Amendment G.
This amendment would provide an arbitrary trimester framework for allowing abortion, much like Roe v. Wade did; in the first trimester, it would be unregulated, in the second trimester the state may regulate abortion in ways that are “reasonably related to the health of the mother,” and in the third trimester the state may restrict abortion, except “when abortion is necessary, in the medical judgment of the woman’s physician, to preserve the life and health of the pregnant woman.”
Again, this broad language essentially means abortion could be legal for all nine months if the amendment were to pass.
Editor’s Note 9/7: This post has been updated to include ballot information for Nebraska
