Multiple US states extend abortion rights, while Florida measure fails
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Voters in Florida defeated a measure that would have overturned the state's ban on abortion after six weeks.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON – Residents in a handful of US states extended or enshrined into law the right to an abortion on Nov 5, while voters in Florida defeated a measure that would have increased access.
The ballot initiatives, which ran in parallel to the US presidential election, come more than two years after the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to the procedure, leaving the matter up to the states.
A total of 10 states had measures on the ballot – nearly all giving voters the chance to expand access or enshrine abortion rights into law.
In Arizona, Colorado and Maryland, voters cast their ballots favourably for pro-abortion rights measures, while several other states’ results had yet to be called.
Women in Arizona, for example, will now have the right to an abortion until foetal viability, usually around 24 weeks, under an amendment to the state Constitution, whereas the procedure was previously banned after 15 weeks.
Conservative Florida gave voters the opportunity to overturn the state’s ban on abortion after six weeks and allow the procedure until foetal viability.
However, the state set a very high bar for its initiative to pass: At least 60 per cent of votes cast were necessary.
US media reported that the measure, known as Amendment 4, received 57 per cent of the vote.
The Florida defeat marked the first pro-abortion rights ballot measure to fail since the US Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned Roe v Wade,
“Today’s victory in Florida is unprecedented – and should be viewed as the start of a revolution for women’s healthcare in America,” Ms Christina Francis of the American Association of Pro-life OB/GYNs said in a statement.
‘Reproductive freedom’
Advocates had hoped Florida, which is surrounded by states with stringent restrictions, could have once again become a destination for those seeking the procedure in the US south-east.
Abortion rights proponents argue that many women still do not know they are pregnant at six weeks.
“As the majority of Florida voters made clear tonight, they want their reproductive freedom back,” Ms Nancy Northup, president of the Centre for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.
“Due to the high 60 per cent threshold and the state’s disinformation campaign, they must continue to live with the fear, uncertainty and denial of care caused by the reversal of Roe,” she added.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who positioned herself as a defender of reproductive and abortion rights
Those cases often were the result of healthcare providers who were reluctant to intervene in the case of miscarriages or other problems for fear of being accused of performing an illegal abortion.
The right to an abortion was dismantled by a Supreme Court shaped under former president Donald Trump, who appointed three justices to the panel. AFP
