States’ Abortion Rights Wins May Be Short-Lived Under a Second Trump Term

When the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, it ended the constitutional right to have an abortion and returned the ability to regulate the procedure to the states. Now, amid a heated presidential election that resulted in a win for Donald Trump, a handful of states have voted to enshrine reproductive rights into their state constitutions.

On Tuesday, Americans in 10 states voted on ballot initiatives to protect or expand abortion access. Seven of those states successfully passed protective measures, underscoring the widespread unpopularity of restrictive abortion policies.

Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York passed referendums upholding abortion rights, while measures to restore or expand access failed in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Abortion is already legal until viability in Maryland, Montana, and New York, and throughout pregnancy in Colorado with no restrictions, so the passage of these measures will not change access to abortion in those states.

Nevada currently allows abortions through 24 weeks, but the ballot initiative passed on Tuesday would extend that until fetal viability. Voters will have to approve the measure again in 2026 in order to formally amend the state’s constitution.

Arizona and Missouri were two of the many states that moved to restrict abortion access after the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Arizona banned abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, but that law will now be unconstitutional under the newly passed amendment. In Missouri, a trigger law banned abortions at all points of pregnancy, except to save the life of the pregnant person. The law, one of the strictest abortion bans in the county, made no exceptions for rape or incest. But on Tuesday, voters backed an amendment that would end that ban and amend the Missouri constitution to protect abortion access.

In Florida, an amendment that would have prohibited laws restricting abortion gained 57 percent of the vote, falling short of the 60 percent threshold it needed to pass. The state currently bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, and enforces other abortion restrictions.

Meanwhile, Nebraska voters weighed competing ballot measures on abortion rights, ultimately passing one that upholds an abortion ban after the 12th week of pregnancy. Voters in South Dakota rejected a proposal to protect abortion rights, preserving a near-total ban there.