In November, voters in Ohio approved Issue 1, which established the right to an abortion in the state constitution. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022, which overruled Roe v. Wade, there were seven abortion measures on the ballot, including the 2023 Ohio measure.
In 2022, voters in three other states—California, Michigan, and Vermont—approved ballot measures providing a state constitutional right to an abortion. Like Ohio Issue 1, the ballot measures in California, Michigan, and Vermont were designed to provide state constitutional rights to an abortion. In Kansas and Kentucky, voters rejected ballot measures to state that nothing in their state constitutions creates a right to abortion or requires government funding of abortions. In Montana, voters rejected a measure called the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.
In 2024, two abortion-related constitutional amendments will appear on the ballot in Maryland and New York, and 14 measures have been proposed in 11 other states. Potential ballot measures are either in the process of circulation for signatures or need to be passed by the state legislature to qualify for the ballot.
