The Japan Times - US states extend abortion rights; Florida, S.Dakota measures fail

The ballot initiatives, which ran in parallel to the US presidential election won by Republican Donald Trump, come more than two years after the Supreme Court -- stacked with conservative justices handpicked by Trump during his first term -- overturned the federal right to the procedure.

That left the matter up to the states. On Election Day a total of 10 states had abortion measures on the ballot -- nearly all giving voters the chance to expand access or enshrine reproductive rights into law.

In Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York voters cast their ballots favorably for pro-abortion rights measures.

Dueling initiatives in Nebraska had yet to be called.

Women in Arizona, for example, will now have the right to an abortion until fetal viability, usually around 24 weeks, under an amendment to the state constitution. The procedure had previously been banned after 15 weeks.

The change will be even more dramatic in Missouri, which had one of the strictest abortion bans in the country with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Voters in the state approved an amendment to the constitution to allow pregnancies to be terminated until fetal viability.

Conservative Florida gave voters the opportunity to also allow the procedure until the same limit, which would have overturned the state's ban on abortion after six weeks.

However, the state set an incredibly high bar for its initiative to pass: At least 60 percent of votes cast were necessary.

US media reported that the measure, known as Amendment 4, received 57 percent 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, the ruling that had given women a federal right to the procedure.

"Today's victory in Florida is unprecedented -- and should be viewed as the start of a revolution for women's healthcare in America," Christina Francis of the American Association of Pro-life OB/GYNs said in a statement.

By early Wednesday it became clear that Florida was not alone.

Abortion is currently banned in South Dakota, except when necessary to save the life of the mother. Voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have overridden that, US media reported.

- '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 southeast.

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," Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

"Due to the high 60 percent 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, made a point of highlighting the plight of a number of women who had suffered serious complications or even death due to abortion restrictions after the Supreme Court decision.

Those cases often were the result of health care providers who were reluctant to intervene in the case of miscarriages or other problems for fear of being accused of performing an illegal abortion.

Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court during his first term, giving it the conservative majority needed to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling which enshrined the right to abortion in 1973.

Since then, many women have been forced to travel to other states to have the procedure.

In a statement issued as Trump's victory became clear Wednesday, Northup warned that the "harms" of his first presidency would be compounded by "new, potentially far worse" threats in his second.

She vowed to "take the fight to them at every turn."

M.Matsumoto--JT