Voters show up for abortion rights: Yesterday, voters across the country made clear that they oppose Republican-backed abortion restrictions. Andy Beshear, Kentucky's Democratic incumbent, won his reelection bid for governor after repeatedly hammering his opponent's opposition to abortion. In Ohio, both weed and abortion won when put to the people via ballot measures—the latter by 12 points. In Virginia, Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate. In Pennsylvania, Democrats won a state Supreme Court seat. (Both states saw a lot of abortion-related campaigning.)
"Abortion is the No. 1 issue in the 2024 campaign," Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, who publicly supported the abortion efforts in Ohio and Virginia, said Tuesday. In Ohio, Issue 1—which amends the state constitution to protect abortion up until the point of fetal viability, or around weeks 22-24—won, which means that Republicans will be thwarted in their attempts to ban abortion at six weeks of pregnancy. (Former Roundup writer/Ohioan Elizabeth Nolan Brown covered some of the Issue 1 controversy here.)
