Abortion-rights activists have found success on ballot initiatives focused on reproductive rights, even across different states and partisan lines. Reproductive rights have been officially enshrined in the state constitutions of Michigan, California and Vermont. Meanwhile, Kentucky voters rejected an amendment that would’ve explicitly excluded the right to an abortion from the state’s constitution. And Montana voters rejected a referendum that would’ve codified any infant “born alive” at any gestational age as a legal person, and criminalized health care providers that did not make every every effort to save the life of an infant “born during an attempted abortion.” These results clearly show differing levels of support for abortion and reproductive rights, and they mean very different things in each state. But voters in each state ended up choosing the options more favorable toward reproductive rights that were offered to them — even if they didn’t vote for Democrats.
