Abortion rights ballot measures pass in 7 states but fail in 3 others

According to NBC News projects, constitutional amendments to protect or expand abortion were passed in seven of the 10 states where they were on the ballot Tuesday.

Voters in Arizona and Missouri approved ballot initiatives that would effectively protect abortion rights until the fetus is viable and roll back existing abortion laws. But voters in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota rejected proposed amendments that would have done the same thing – failing the first abortion rights ballot measures since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade quit in June 2022.

Meanwhile, voters in Maryland, Montana, Nevada and New York (where abortion is already legal based on fetal viability) and Colorado (where there are no laws restricting abortion and no pregnancy limits for women seeking abortions) have taken action passed that will officially enshrine these existing rights. Organizers said the changes are intended to prevent lawmakers from repealing existing protections in the future.

Two controversial abortion measures were on the ballot in Nebraska. The voter-approved rule will protect abortion rights in the first trimester and ban the procedure in the second and third trimesters, except in medical emergencies or when pregnancies are the result of sexual assault or incest. The passage effectively codifies the state's existing law, which bans abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy with some exceptions, into the state constitution.

The other amendment, which would have enshrined abortion rights until the fetus is viable in the conservative state's constitution, was defeated.

The amendment defeats in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota ended an unbroken streak of winning ballot measures supporting abortion rights in the two and a half years since Roe was overturned.

In Florida, voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have banned restrictions on abortions before fetal viability and provided exceptions beyond that point for “the health of the patient as determined by the patient's health care provider.”

Under Florida law, passage of the measure required the support of 60% of voters, rather than a simple majority. With 96% of expected votes, the abortion rights amendment received 57% support.

Its failure upholds the state's six-week abortion ban, which includes exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the woman.

In South Dakota, the proposed amendment on the ballot would have legalized abortion in all situations during the first trimester of pregnancy. It would have allowed for “regulation” by the status of second trimester abortion, but such regulation “must be reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.” The change would have allowed for “regulation or prohibition” by the state in the third trimester, except in cases where a doctor determined that the care was necessary to “protect the life or health” of the woman.

South Dakota has a near-total ban on abortion, which came back into effect after the defeat of Roe in 2022. The ban, which abortion rights groups say is among the most restrictive in the country, bans all abortions except when necessary to save the woman's life.