Yesterday marked yet another election cycle in which voters rejected Republicans’ ongoing attempt to limit abortions and restrict reproductive care. Republicans continue to lose ground on this issue, even on their own red state turf. Every time abortion rights are put to a popular vote, they win and right-wing abolitionists lose.
The truth is that Americans are supporting abortion access at higher percentages than before the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. A 59% majority say they still oppose the justices’ decision. The results this cycle again confirmed broad public support for abortion access across the country and misgivings about the Supreme Court’s disruptive decision:
• Ohio voters came out in droves to enshrine abortion protections into their state constitution, preventing a dangerous six-week abortion ban (including no exceptions for rape or incest) from going back into effect after being blocked by the courts for over a year. The amendment to the state’s constitution got 56.6% of the vote.
• Virginia voters didn’t buy the Republicans messaging on a 15-week abortion ban as a “moderate” and “reasonable compromise” and voted to keep the Democratic majority in the Senate and flip the House, preventing Governor Youngkin from implementing the ban with a Republican majority. This also leaves Virginia as the southernmost state without a post-Roe change to abortion access.
• Despite the race not determining the majority in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, voters showed strong support for the pro-choice Democrat, ensuring the Court will continue to protect reproductive access in the state.
• Finally, in deep-red Kentucky, voters also backed Democratic candidates for both Governor and Attorney General who promised to support abortion rights.
This all comes at the heels of last year, where ballot measures in six states, the most on record for a single year, resulted in wins for abortion rights, including in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont. Next year, 11 more states could also face ballot measures related to abortion access, including in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.
If the results of these races have been any indication of what messaging voters resonate with and the issues that matter most to them, it’s abundantly clear that ensuring abortion access remains a top concern. Voters see right through the thin veil of the Republican abortion agenda and clearly see their attacks on Democracy and on reproductive rights: They will go to any length to interfere in their ability to decide how and when to plan for their families.
At a time when maternal and infant mortality is skyrocketing in mostly red states, and pregnant women are being forced to sit in hospital parking lots until they are sepsis to receive care because of draconian abortion restrictions in red states, Americans’ health fares far worse at the helm of Republican leadership. Voters continue to see and are experiencing the harmful effects of the latest abortion restrictions post-Roe and show up time and again to refute the radical, toxic Republican abortion and reproductive health agenda.
Last night’s results demonstrate again that the majority of American voters are with the Democrats on reproductive rights. The party should center the abortion issue in next year’s national elections as well as state legislative contests. Democrats have an opportunity to connect with independent and moderate Republican voters who don’t want to see their personal liberties stripped away.