Abortion is on the ballot again as post-Roe policies continue to evolve
MAPLEWOOD, Mo. —
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policies → continue → ballot
After Missouri voters added abortion protections to the state constitution in 2024, Kelly McCoomb decided to keep her yard sign supporting the measure in the basement of her suburban St. Louis home.
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McCoomb → add → home
She wants her daughter to grow up in a state where the option is available if needed, and the sign was a keepsake from the day Missourians voted to reverse the state's near-total ban.
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Missourians → want → ban
McCoomb also couldn't shake the feeling that she'd need to display the sign in her yard again soon.
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she → shake → yard
"I have little faith in our Missouri government," McCoomb said, sitting on her front porch.
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McCoomb → have → porch
Sure enough, just two years later, the state's Republican-dominated legislature is asking Missouri voters to overturn the abortion protections they recently supported.
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they → dominate → protections
The conflicting measures even have the same title: Amendment 3.
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measures → conflict → title
But while a "yes" vote in 2024 supported adding protections to the state constitution, a "no" vote in 2026 would keep them.
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vote → support → them
McCoomb covered the "YES" on her yard sign with a "NO" made from black duct tape before placing the sign back in her yard.
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McCoomb → cover → yard
Voters will weigh in on abortion in Missouri, and three other states, in the November general election.
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Voters → weigh → election
Missouri is also one of two states voting on it for the second time since 2024.
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Missouri → vote → 2024
Nevada will vote again, too.
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Nevada → vote → ?
The spate of referenda comes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections with its 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization – leaving each state to make its own abortion policy.
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Court → come → policy
The result has been a patchwork of state rules with varying degrees of bans or limitations, and even a series of "shield laws" in states where abortion remains legal that aim to protect providers from prosecution in states where it's not.
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it → remain → states
"I just think there's a constitutional crisis that's coming," said Kristi Hamrick, vice president of media and policy for the anti-abortion organization Students for Life Action.
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Hamrick → think → Life
Can you have 50 state standards on whether human beings have legal protection?" Hamrick said.
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Hamrick → have → protection
Advocacy groups work to clarify abortion rules
That patchwork of abortion protections is the reason Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom introduced the 2024 ballot measure to enshrine the state's law allowing abortions up to 24 weeks after conception into the state constitution, said Denise Lopez, president of the coalition.
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Lopez → work → coalition
The measure received strong support two years ago from 64% of voters.
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measure → receive → voters
Nevada law requires two majority votes to enshrine constitutional amendments, so voters will need to support the expanded protection again in November for it to be enacted.
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it → require → November
The Nevada ballot measure wouldn't change the state's existing law allowing abortions up to 24 weeks after conception.
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measure → change → conception
But the proposal would make it more difficult to overturn abortion access, requiring voter approval of any new ban in two elections.
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it → make → elections
Lopez said Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom has been campaigning to ensure voters are still mobilized.
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voters → say → Freedom
"Folks care about it," she said.
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she → care → it
"They're seeing what's happening at the national level, and they want to make sure that whatever's happening in our neighboring states, like Idaho and Utah, doesn't happen here in Nevada."
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happening → see → Nevada
Idaho, where a ballot measure establishing abortion rights recently qualified to go before voters in November, has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.
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measure → establish → country
Voters will decide whether state statute should allow abortion through fetal viability, the point when a fetus can survive after birth, which is generally considered to be around 24 weeks.
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which → decide → birth
In Utah, abortion is allowed up to 18 weeks while legal challenges to the state's ban continue.
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challenges → allow → ban
In Virginia, where abortion is already allowed through two trimesters of pregnancy, until 28 weeks, voters will decide whether to amend their state constitution to codify those rights.
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voters → allow → rights
Missouri is the only state voting this year on removing abortion protections already on the books.
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Missouri → vote → books
The measure would repeal the 2024 amendment that guaranteed abortion access through fetal viability in the state and replace it with a ban on abortions with exceptions for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies and pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
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that → repeal → rape
Abortions for rape and incest would have to occur before 12 weeks of pregnancy.
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Abortions → have → pregnancy
Missouri was the first state to ban abortion after the Dobbs decision in 2022.
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Missouri → ban → 2022
At that time, abortions had already mostly ceased in the state after three decades of state regulations targeting the practice, including a 72-hour waiting period, minimum dimensions for procedure rooms and hallways in clinics that provide abortions, and a mandate that the clinicians have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, among others.
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clinicians → cease → others
Only 150 abortions were performed in Missouri in 2021, down from 5,772 in 2011, state records show.
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records → perform → 2011
Despite Missouri voters backing the abortion amendment in 2024, it took nearly two years for medication abortions to resume in the state.
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abortions → back → state
A second vote on abortion in Missouri causes confusion
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vote → cause → confusion
Margot Riphagen-Dunn, CEO of St. Louis-based Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, said the whiplash of a second statewide vote on abortion mirrors the confusion that patients have experienced about whether abortion is available in the state.
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abortion → base → state
"Chaos is kind of the point here," Riphagen-Dunn said, "and it is absolutely a tactic that gets in the way of being able to provide."
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that → say → way
The confusion has presented problems for abortion opponents in the state as well.
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confusion → present → state
"I think it's unfortunate," said Reagan Barklage, who is a vice president of Students for Life of America and the treasurer of the Missouri Students for Life Ballot Committee.
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who → think → Committee
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
