Abortion rights have been endorsed in recent ballots in seven states, yet bans and Draconian restrictions remain in place across the US, leaving millions of women in places with extreme constraints.
Seven U.S. states – Arizona, Missouri, and Maryland among them – voted on ballot proposals to preserve or increase access to abortion at a critical juncture for reproductive rights.
The results of this election day increasingly show popular support, but the situation remains complicated: millions of people still have limited access.
The recently approved bills further strengthened protections in states where abortion is already legal—Colorado, New York, and Nevada—by making it a constitutional right.
Something more profound happened elsewhere, however: the voters in Missouri and Arizona: Arizonans raised their gestational limitations to fetal viability, or roughly 22–24 weeks; Missourians voted to amend an amendment challenging a state-level abortion prohibition.
Experts warn, though, that these developments notwithstanding, access is unlikely to get any better overnight.
It is going to take a lot of work and money to make these rights available in the very state where Missouri once was-another state like it, at least-one that had no operating abortion clinics before the Dobbs ruling. To hasten matters, Planned Parenthood sued last week in Missouri.
It has been particularly impactful in states like Florida, which have tightened legislation.
It’s not just that it is keeping women out of the same kind of care in the state itself, but its new six-week limit has also caused issues for women across state borders in similar states, traveling farther and paying more in medical costs.
The national tapestry remains splintered because more states are formally positioning themselves in this discussion, but there remain large obstacles standing in the way of access to reproductive healthcare for women in states where such care is heavily restricted.
