With referendums on the issue in ten American states, the November 5 vote could become a plebiscite for the defense of abortion in the United States. However, it is not certain that mobilization around a right that American women considered untouchable will benefit Democrats as much as they expected. Its candidate, Kamala Harris, who defended the “freedom to choose” one of the main axes of his candidacy, could even be indirectly affected by the division that the campaign on abortion has accentuated.
In these ten states (Arizona, Colorado, South Dakota, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and New York), voters are informed, at the same time as the election of the president and members of Congress, of constitutional rights. amendments to expand or protect access to abortion. Two of them are among the key states for the presidential elections: Arizona and Nevada. Two others are of crucial importance for control of the Senate: Montana and Florida.
The questions are formulated differently. In states where abortion is legal beyond the fifteenth week (Colorado, Nevada, Maryland and Montana), the aim is to guarantee access or expand it, authorizing, for example (Colorado), the use of public funds for the reimbursement of voluntary contributions. Pregnancy interruptions (IVG). In the others (Arizona, Missouri, South Dakota and Florida), what is at stake is the lifting of current restrictions, with concrete consequences for millions of women.
Existential grief
In Nebraska, two texts are in competition. In New York State, “Proposition 1” is part of a broader context: it seeks to protect a set of “fundamental rights” including abortion, but the word does not appear in the text.
Polls show that the referendum proposals should pass in most states, with the exception of very conservative South Dakota, where abortion is completely prohibited unless the mother’s life is in danger. Even in Missouri, whose Assembly is controlled two-thirds by Republicans, “Amendment 3” exceeds 50% approval in the polls. In Florida, “Amendment 4”, which proposes to protect the right to abortion until the fetus is viable, should reach 50%, but must obtain 60% of the votes to be approved, a threshold that has already been exceeded in similar consultations . in California or Vermont, but never in a red state.
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