Abortion rights are the new winning political issue in the United States

Anti-abortion activists might have scored a big win when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade but it looks as if that decision also turned abortion rights into the country's next winning political issue.

It has been more than a year since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and in that time seven states have put abortion rights on their ballots according to NBC News.  

Some of the ballets were in red states while others were in blue. But all of them had one thing in common: Anti-abortion advocates lost in every single one of the seven votes. 

Some states even approved amendments to their constitutions protecting abortion rights and rejected laws that would limit a woman's access to the procedure. So what’s going on?

Kansas was the first state to reject the new abortion paradigm in August 2022 when the citizens voted against a constitutional amendment that would have taken away the right to an abortion in the state. 

The vote was a significant one because it revealed a potential problem for Republicans, swing districts swung left and high voter turnout won the day according to a New York Times report.

“I was surprised for sure,” Executive Director of the Advice and Aid Pregnancy Center Ruth Tisdale told the Associated Press in the aftermath of the state’s referendum. 

“I thought that it would be a closer outcome either way. I didn’t have a strong sense of whether it would pass or not, but I thought that it would be closer,” Tisdale continued. 

However, the referendum wasn’t close with 59.16% of people voting in favor of rejecting a constitutional amendment that would have taken away the right to have an abortion in Kansas according to the Kansas Secretary of State.

Since the Kansas referendum, voters in Kentucky have rejected an amendment to their state constitution that included language saying the state wouldn’t protect the right to an abortion NBC News reported. 

Moreover, voters in California, Michigan, and Vermont have all passed amendments to their constitutions guaranteeing the right to an abortion in their states. 

The latest victory for abortion rights occurred on August 8th when Ohio voters came out in droves to reject Issue 1, a ballot measure that would have required a 60% vote on any amendments to change the state’s constitution rather than a majority, the Associated Press reported. 

Ohio’s Republican-led government banned any abortions once cardiac activity was detected in the fetus back in 2019 when it passed The Human Rights and Heartbeat Protection Act. But that ban was never enforced because of Roe v. Wade. 

Ohio's ban took effect for a short time after the Supreme Court’s decision but the state court put the cardiac abortion ban on hold while it was challenged for allegedly violating Ohio's constitution. 

Ohio is one of several states in the union where citizens can supersede the legislature and pose ballot questions directly to voters, which is why the rejection of the 60% threshold proposed by Issue 1 was such an important win for abortion rights in the state. 

Abortion rights activists in Ohio have been increasingly looking to enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution via a ballot question posed directly to voters, according to the Associated Press. 

“There was this idea that we couldn’t win on abortion in red states and that idea has really been smashed,” said Executive Director of Unite Reproductive and Gender Equality Kimberly Inez McGuire said after the defeat of Issue 1. 

If McGuire is right, then Republicans could be looking at a devastating election in 2024. “I think 2024 is going to be huge,” McGuire explained. “And I think in many ways, Ohio is a proving ground, an early fight in the lead-up to 2024.”