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Ten states across the country could enshrine the right to abortion in their state constitutions this year.
Seven states have directly voted on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 — and abortion rights advocates are so far undefeated with ballot measures. The most recent win came in November when Ohio became the latest state to vote to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution.
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The proposed amendments have the potential to reshape abortion access around the country and mobilize voters. Abortion rights ballot measures outperformed Democrats on the ballot in California, Michigan and Vermont in the 2022 midterms.
Currently, 23 states enable citizens to put constitutional amendments on the ballot, while others only allow a state legislature to put them before the voters. While not all ballot measures are necessarily constitutional amendments, most of the efforts in 2024 are behind reshaping state constitutions to enshrine reproductive rights.
Ballot measure campaigns are highly expensive, time-consuming endeavors. In many states, Republican officials have endeavored to keep abortion measures off the ballot with legal challenges, shape the measures’ summary language and inflate their estimated cost.
In one case, they succeeded at stopping a measure from going in front of voters: Organizers in Arkansas submitted more signatures than required to put abortion rights on the ballot but lost a legal battle with the secretary of state’s office. The measure will not appear on the November ballot.
Here’s an overview of where abortion will — and could be — directly on the ballot in 2024 and the challenges advocates are facing in the states.
Arizona
Arizona’s ballot measure, Proposition 139, would protect abortion rights up to the point of fetal viability.
Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive rights groups, submitted over 820,000 signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would guarantee a right to abortion. More than one in five registered voters in Arizona signed petitions to get the measure on the ballot, the group said.
- Current law: Arizona bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest. There was a tumultuous back-and-forth on the issue this spring, when a state Supreme Court decision said Arizona could enforce a near-total abortion ban passed in 1864. The decision sparked outrage in Arizona, leading the state legislature to repeal the 19th-century law.
- Political landscape: Arizona is a swing state in the presidential race; President Joe Biden won in 2020 by just over 10,000 votes. Abortion is also likely to be a significant issue in Arizona’s competitive U.S. Senate election.
- Arizona’s ballot measure could shift the narrative on Latinas and abortion
- Why Arizona organizers aren’t shying away from saying ‘abortion
Colorado
Coloradans are voting on a proposed constitutional amendment that would repeal the state’s ban on public funding for abortions, which bars state employees or residents on Medicaid from having abortions covered by insurance. It’s on the ballot as Amendment 79.
Constitutional amendments require a 55 percent supermajority to pass in Colorado.
- Current law: Abortion is legally protected with no gestational limits in Colorado. Lawmakers established a legal right to abortion in 2022 and passed additional protections for patients traveling to Colorado from other states. Voters have also repeatedly rejected constitutional amendments that would restrict abortion in the state.
- Political landscape: Biden carried Colorado by 13 points in 2020.
Florida
Floridians are voting on Amendment 4, a constitutional amendment that would guarantee a right to abortion up until the point of fetal viability. For years, Florida was a critical access point for abortion as its neighboring states have heavily restricted or banned the procedure, but a six-week ban put in place in May changed that dynamic..
Constitutional amendments require a 60 percent supermajority to pass in Florida.
- Current law: As of May 1, abortion in Florida is banned after six weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape and incest up to 15 weeks.
- Political landscape: Florida and its 30 Electoral College votes hold significant sway in the presidential race, though the once-swing state has trended Republican in recent election cycles. Florida also has a competitive U.S. Senate race on the ballot.
- Challenges: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who supports the six-week ban, vocally opposed the measure and leveraged public resources to try to undermine the abortion rights campaign. His state health department sought to stop local news channels from airing advertisements in favor of Amendment 4, an effort blocked by federal courts. Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president and a Florida resident, also said he would vote against the measure.
- Florida’s abortion ban has an exception for fatal fetal anomalies. So why was this woman forced to go to Virginia?
- A list of all the ways DeSantis has tried to meddle in Florida’s abortion ballot measure
- Of 10 states with abortion ballot measures, only one requires 60 percent support to pass
Maryland
Maryland voters are voting on a constitutional amendment put on the ballot by the Democrat-controlled legislature that would enshrine a broad right to abortion and other reproductive rights. It’s on the ballot as Question 1.
- Current law: Abortion is legal up to the point of fetal viability in Maryland. The right to abortion has been protected under state law since the 1990s.
- Political landscape: Biden carried Maryland by 33 points in 2020.
Missouri
Missourians are voting on a measure that would restore access to abortion, a proposed amendment that would establish a constitutional right to abortion to the point of fetal viability and to other forms of reproductive health care, including contraception access and miscarriage care. It’s on the ballot as Amendment 3.
- Current law: Abortion is banned with no exceptions for rape or incest in Missouri.
- Challenges: The measure has faced a number of ultimately unsuccessful challenges The latest, a ruling by a county judge that the amendment was invalid and should not appear on the ballot, was overturned by the state Supreme Court on September 10.
- Political landscape: Trump won Missouri by 15 points in 2020.
- Missouri voters could undo their state’s abortion ban. Making abortion accessible is a different story.
Montana
Montanans are voting on CI-128, a ballot measure that would protect abortion up until the point of fetal viability, codifying current law in this red state.
- Current law: Abortion is legal to the point of fetal viability in Montana, though lawmakers have repeatedly tried to restrict the procedure. The state Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that the state constitution’s right to privacy includes a right to abortion.
- Political landscape: Trump carried Montana by 16 points in 2020. Red state Democratic Sen. Jon Tester faces a tough reelection fight.
- Challenges: The Montana Supreme Court has allowed the proposed measure to move forward, rejecting a challenge from GOP Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who argued the first version of Planned Parenthood’s proposed language was “legally insufficient” and “logrolls multiple distinct political choices into a single initiative.” The court also struck Knudsen’s proposed fiscal note estimating the measure would have a fiscal impact on the state.
Nebraska
Nebraskans are voting on two competing abortion ballot measures in 2024.
Initiative 439, the measure backed by Protect Our Rights coalition, would guarantee a constitutional right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability. The other amendment, Initiative 434, backed by anti-abortion groups, would ban most abortions after about 12 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for threats to the life of the pregnant patient, rape and incest — similar to current law.
The measure that gains the most votes will pass.
- Current law: Abortion is banned after 12 weeks in Nebraska with exceptions for rape, incest and threat to the life of the pregnant patient.
- Political landscape: Nebraska splits up its electoral votes by congressional district, and the Omaha-based 2nd District is a battleground in both the U.S. House and the Electoral College; Trump won the state overall by 19 points in 2020, but Biden carried the 2nd District with 56 percent of the vote.
- Challenges: The Nebraska Supreme Court heard arguments on September 9 in three separate lawsuits over the ballot measures, which must be certified by September 13 to appear on the November ballot. Two cases, including one brought by the conservative Thomas More Society, challenged the validity of the Nebraska Right to Abortion amendment on the basis that it violated a legal requirement for a proposed constitutional amendment to address a single subject. Another case brought by pro-abortion rights groups asked the court to allow both the amendments or neither to appear on the ballot.
The court ruled September 13 that both initatives would appear on the November ballot.
Nevada
Nevadans are voting on Question 6, a ballot measure that would establish a constitutional right to abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. It’s the limit that lawmakers codified in the 1990s, but an amendment would have been harder to repeal.
Proposed constitutional amendments must pass in two consecutive election cycles in Nevada. If the measure passes in 2024, it will go before voters again in 2026.
- Current law: Abortion is already legal up to 24 weeks in Nevada.
- Political landscape: Nevada is a critical battleground state in the 2024 presidential race; Biden carried the state by 2.4 points in 2020. Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is also facing a competitive reelection race that will be key to Democrats’ hopes of holding control of the U.S. Senate.
- Challenges: A judge ruled in November that the first proposed measure filed by Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom violated Nevada’s requirement that ballot measures address a single subject, leading backers to submit a new initiative with narrower language in December. A judge approved that second proposed measure in January. But in a win for the coalition, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the original ballot petition language they submitted in November 2023 was constitutional and did not violate the single-subject rule.
New York
New Yorkers are voting on a broad equal rights amendment that would ban a range of discrimination and establish a right to abortion and other reproductive health care in the state constitution. The measure, on the ballot as Proposition 1, has been passed twice by the legislature.
- Current law: Abortion is protected under state law. Lawmakers in 2019 removed abortion from being regulated in the state’s criminal code and allowed the procedure at any stage of pregnancy to save the patient’s life or health.
- Political landscape: New York has several competitive U.S. House races on the ballot and will be critical to Democrats’ chances of taking back control of the chamber. Some Democrats have said they hope the equal rights amendment will boost turnout for Democrats.
- Challenges: A local judge sided with a challenge from a Republican state lawmaker in striking the measure from the November ballot, ruling on May 7 that lawmakers didn’t follow the proper technical procedure to put the amendment before the voters. But the ruling was overturned after a challenge from New Yorkers for Equal Rights, the coalition supporting the amendment, with the state’s highest court ruling in July that the measure qualifies for the ballot.
South Dakota
South Dakota was the first U.S. state to establish a citizen-led ballot initiative process, in 1898. Now citizens are voting on Constitutional Amendment G, which would guarantee a right to abortion in the first trimester. It would allow the state to regulate abortion only in ways “reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman” in the second trimester.
Major reproductive rights organizations including the ACLU and the regional Planned Parenthood affiliate groups aren’t supporting the proposal, arguing the measure doesn’t go far enough and that Dakotans for Health rushed drafting and submitting the language.
- Current law: Abortion is banned in South Dakota with no exceptions for rape or incest. Voters rejected anti-abortion constitutional amendments in 2006 and 2008.
- Political landscape: Trump carried South Dakota by 26 points in 2020.
Where abortion has won on the ballot since 2022
California
California voted to enshrine a right to abortion and contraception in its state constitution in 2022. The measure passed with 67 percent of the vote; Biden won the state by 29 points in 2020.
Michigan
Michigan established a constitutional right to abortion and other reproductive health care, including contraception, miscarriage care, fertility treatment, and pre- and post-natal care in 2022. The measure passed with 57 percent of the vote; Biden won the state by three points in 2020.
Ohio
Ohio voted to protect a right to abortion up until the point of fetal viability as well as contraception, miscarriage care and fertility treatment in its state constitution in 2023. The measure passed with 57 percent of the vote; Trump won the state by eight points in 2020.
Vermont
Vermont voted to add a right to “personal reproductive autonomy,” including abortion, in its state constitution in 2022. The measure passed with 77 percent of the vote; Biden won by 35 points in 2020.
