Topic: State Constitutions & Abortion – Peace and Life Referendums

No Right to (or Ban) Abortion

OR

Ensure Right to Abortion

Amendments

plus one to protect people from euthanasia

Since the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, saying there’s no right to abortion in the federal U.S. constitution, there’s been a flurry of states wanting to address abortion in their state constitutions. Some states want to say there’s no right in order to keep state judges from deciding that the state constitution guarantees a right even if the federal one doesn’t. Others want to nail down a right to abortion to keep their states in line with pre-Roe norms or in order to keep the legislature from passing restrictions or bans.

No Right to Abortion:

For November 8, 2022, it was voted on in Kentucky, and failed with 53% voting no. It was also defeated in Kansas August 2. 2022.

For the future, legislators were reported as attempting to put such an amendment on the ballot in Pennsylvania in 2023 and Iowa in 2024. However, the failure of the previous two makes the required vote in the second session less likely to happen.

This approach has a 100% failure rate since Dobbs. Yet it had a 100% success rate pre-Dobbs. Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee and Louisiana passed similar amendments. Both of the ones that failed were set to go on the ballot before the Dobbs decision came down.

Ensure Right to Abortion:

It’s set to be in the ballot in November 2024 in Florida, Maryland and New York.

There are petition drives or attempts by legislatures in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Missouri, Nevada, South Dakota, and Washington.

This passed in California, Michigan, and Vermont in November, 2022, and in Ohio in November 2023.

Protection against Medically Assisted Suicide

One set for the ballot is in West Virginia, November 2024.

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(Note: on another page we cover another common referendum for state constitutions, to finally abolish all slavery by removing the exception for those convicted of a crime.)

Effective Use of Social Media

Louisiana passed a no-right-to-abortion amendment by a vote of 63% on November 3, 2020. The videos below are all specific to the Louisiana referendum, but the reasoning can be used and adapted to any of the campaigns.

This is also an example of a good way to use social media for elections: a variety of people made videos of around a minute each, from a wide variety of perspectives in order to suit the fancy of voters of differing interests. We include just a few. This should be effective for any campaign on any issue, not limited to this one.