Abortion Is (Literally) on the Ballot Tuesday in 5 States

Pro-abortion rights position: Yes on Prop 3

Michigan’s Prop 3—like California and Vermont’s measures—would also create a constitutional right to abortion in the state. The measure faces a slightly more uphill battle in a state like Michigan than in California, though the latest poll still shows it trending to pass, with 52.2% of voters in favor, 42.7% against, and 5.1% undecided.

At a debate last month, MAGA-Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon accused Prop 3 of “[allowing] abortion up to the moment of birth for any reason, including sex selection.” Abortion “up to the moment of birth”—I cannot stress this enough—does not happen, and so-called, sex-selective abortion bans are rooted in racist stereotypes, solely invoked to ban abortion.

Abortion remains legal in Michigan, but its Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, faces a tight reelection race, and all of the state’s neighbors—Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin—are fighting abortion bans in court. In August, Whitmer and state Attorney General Dana Nessel successfully prevented a 1931 state abortion ban from being enforced.

Pro-abortion rights position: No on Amendment 2

Kentucky voters are voting on Amendment 2, which would amend the Kentucky Constitution to say that nothing in the document can be construed to protect abortion rights—a “yes” vote supports this, a “no” vote, backed by abortion rights organizers, rejects this. The amendment is similar to Kansas’ ballot measure, which sought to remove the right to an abortion that already existed in the state Constitution. Similarly, anti-abortion politicians in Kentucky—like those in Kansas—have claimed Amendment 2 won’t amount to another abortion ban (Kentucky has already been living under a total abortion ban for months), and simply defeats pro-abortion “extremism.” Sure, Jan!

“It will keep state judges in their lane of interpreting the law and not inventing new laws and new rights that the constitution does not speak of,” Kentucky state Rep. Nancy Tate, the Republican leader of the General Assembly’s Pro-Life Caucus, said at a press conference last month.

For months now, legal challenges to Kentucky’s abortion ban have cited Sections 1 and 2 of the state Constitution and their invocations of “inherent and inalienable rights” as including abortion rights. Amendment 2 would effectively shut this down.

There’s been no public polling about Amendment 2. But Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, told The Intercept last week that “abortion is popular in Kentucky, people do not want it to be banned or inaccessible,” and Republicans are “starting to realize they went too far.”

Pro-abortion rights position: No on LR-131

Voters in Montana are deciding on LR-131, a purposefully deceitful measure called the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act” that would target and criminalize doctors for failing to provide “life-saving care” to newborns—even when no amount of action from doctors could keep the baby alive, and families just want to be with their dying infant in its final moments. Jezebel has previously spoken with organizers on the ground in Montana about just how devastating LR-131 would be, threatening doctors with up to 20 years in prison and $50,000 in fines, and denying families experiencing extreme pregnancy complications or tragic loss the full range of medical options.

“Montanans are being told they’re voting on a measure that’s just going to ‘protect infants born as a result of an abortion,’ but what they’re actually voting on is forcing care on nonviable infants…when families otherwise would have received spiritual comfort and palliative care,” Hillary-Anne Crosby, an organizer working on the campaign to oppose the measure, told me in an interview.

No external polling indicates how Montanans might vote on LR-131, but medical groups and experts have expressed concern that its deceptive language and framing could sway the election. Contrary to the claims of LR-131’s anti-abortion proponents, one study found that out of 5,000 infants born before 27 weeks, none of the infants born before 22 weeks survived. Existing Montana law already prohibits infanticide, and a 2002 federal law grants infants that are born alive the same rights as all people—rendering LR-131 strictly about further stigmatizing abortion and creating confusion. “We get calls from clients sometimes asking if they would retroactively be punished. That level of fear and anxiety is part of the dangerous nature of this measure, which [backers are framing] as being about abortion and scaring people about having abortions,” Aileen Gleizer, a board member of Montana’s abortion fund, told Jezebel.