“Abortion is a winning issue,” said Elizabeth Nash, a policy analyst with the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research group. “Voters want people to have bodily autonomy and agency over their lives. That is pretty core to being an American.” BBC News November 8, 2022
Abortion is a winning issue and one that is not going away as the voters in Kentucky, California, Vermont and Michigan proved on November 8, 2022
A shout out to the women of Kansas who started the ball rolling by organizing, knocking on doors and making phone calls to defeat an amendment that would have taken away abortion rights. They won in a landslide on August 2, 2022!
And on Tuesday Kentucky defeated an amendment that would have declared that nothing in the state constitution protects a right to abortion or requires government funding for abortion. Thank you, Kentucky!
Thank you, Governor Whitmer! By making abortion rights critical to your campaign, you helped put abortion rights in the Michigan state constitution. Thanks to all the Michigan Democrats who campaigned on their opposition to the states 1931 near-total abortion ban and flipped control of the state Legislature!
Thank you to California and Vermont! Both states amended their constitutions to establish an explicit right to abortion. California’s amendment enshrines the right to choose abortion and use contraceptives. The amendment won with 70% of the vote.
Vermont amended their constitution with the strongest abortion rights protection in the country. Votes in favor of the amendment outnumbered “no” votes by a wide margin. 72% in favor, 22% not in favor. Amending the Vermont state constitution is a multi-year process, so supporters, fearing the demise of Roe, started working on it in 2019.
Thank you, John Fetterman who flipped a red Senate seat blue. Thank you, the voters in Pennsylvania where 36 percent of voters said abortion was the most important issue to them, compared to 29 percent for inflation. (National Election Pool exit poll)
Thank you to all the candidates, mostly Democrats, who made their support for abortion rights clear and present.
And Thank You for voting!