Abortion rights prevail in Missouri and Virginia

Voters defeat a proposed amendment to Missouri’s constitution that would have reimposed restrictions on most abortions. The vote essentially reaffirms voters’ decision from two years ago, when they became the first in the nation to undo an existing abortion ban by approving an abortion-rights amendment.

The Republican-led Legislature then referred a new, less restrictive version of an abortion ban to this year’s ballot. The measure would have allowed abortions only for medical emergencies and fetal anomalies, or in cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. It also would have amended the constitution to prohibit certain medical procedures for transgender minors.

Abortion-rights advocates, led by national progressive groups, heavily outspent abortion foes in a successful campaign to defeat the Missouri ballot measure.

The Virginia measure creates a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” in the state constitution, ensuring that abortions can occur during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. The amendment also creates a right to contraception and fertility care, among other things.

Since the US Supreme Court overturned a nationwide right to abortion in 2022, voters in more than one-fifth of the states have passed ballot measures protecting abortion rights.

But voters in Republican-leaning Idaho defeated a ballot measure that would have created abortion rights in state law. Current Idaho law bans abortions unless necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman, or during the first trimester of pregnancy in cases where rape or incest has been reported to law enforcement.

Abortion-rights measures failed two years ago in Florida and South Dakota.