Most abortion rights ballot measures were successful last year, but in November, for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, some citizen initiatives to restore access to abortion failed .
Organizers running campaigns in Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota talked to States Newsroom about what went wrong. Several said they are not giving up the fight, and one group hopes the question will be on the ballot in 2026.
In Arkansas, voters could decide whether to grant abortion rights up to 18 weeks after conception and beyond in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal defects, or to protect the life or physical health of the patient.
But that question never made it onto the ballot. The secretary of state disqualified about 14,000 of the more than 100,000 signatures submitted by Arkansans to Limited Government, the group behind the proposed constitutional amendment, according to the secretary of state. Arkansas Attorney. 90,704 signatures are required for the vote to take place in the state.
An election official found the signatures invalid due to a documentation error, and the state Supreme Court agreed with his decision in August this year. Spokesman reported.
Gennie Diaz, spokeswoman for Arkansans for Limited Government, said the failure was “devastating because we felt that the facts were on our side, the law was on our side and that we had done everything that was required of us.”
All abortions are illegal in Arkansas except to save the mother’s life. Doctors who break the law may be fined $100,000 and serve up to 10 years in prison. No abortions were reported to the state Department of Health in 2023, the latest information available.
During the canvass, the group spent a lot of time informing Arkansans about the law – some residents didn’t know the ban was in effect – and informing them about medical emergencies that arise during a pregnancy that requires an abortion, Diaz said. The Family Council released a list of paid salespeople and their hometowns in June, a move that was condemned by Arkansans for Limited Government as scare tactics.
She said Arkansans for Limited Government plans to launch another abortion rights initiative, but the group will need financial support. “One of the biggest takeaways from our experience is that you need significant funding, solid funding up front to make sure you have a really solid plan,” Diaz said.
In July, the penultimate month of the campaign, the abortion rights committee raised $306,314. Arkansas Attorney reported. According to a spokesman, the Arkansas Family Council donated more than $238,000 to oppose the abortion amendment in slow July, and Stronger Arkansas had about $475,000 available during that period.
Diaz said national funding is critical to the success of the abortion law bill: “I don’t think it necessarily has to come from Planned Parenthood and ACLU National. This is usually the person it came from. “But it’s plainly true that it takes millions of dollars for a ballot initiative to succeed, even in a small state like Arkansas.”
Lack of money was not an issue in Florida, where voters weighed whether to allow abortion before the fetus was viable and whether a doctor would determine the procedure was medically necessary. The abortion rights group behind Amendment 4 has donated a total of more than $121 million, according to state campaign finance records.
Several opposition committees emerged ahead of the election, including Do No Harm, Florida Voters Against Extremism – publicly known as “No on 4” – Keep Florida Pro Life and Life First PC. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis created the Florida Freedom Fund to oppose abortion and marijuana initiatives. DeSantis’ PAC contributed $7.3 million, according to state campaign finance records.
What made this counter-campaign stand out in Florida was the DeSantis administration’s tactics in opposing these efforts. It’s unclear how much the state government spent to oppose the abortion rights vote, but the governor has increased spending criticism – even against members of their own party – as the election approaches. Health agency established government website warning against amendment 4DeSantis appeared next to him doctors against abortionand he got it former NFL coach speak out against the proposal, the Florida Phoenix reported.
“There were misconceptions and outright lies about what the Fourth Amendment was and wasn’t,” said Keisha Mulfort, spokeswoman for the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which worked on the Floridians Protecting Freedom campaign.
In October, state health officials sent cease-and-desist letters to television broadcasters, threatening to sue them over the Yes decision on 4 ad featuring a cancer survivor, Phoenix reported. The group sued the administration, saying officials were trying to chill free speech. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker agreed, saying The Florida Department of Health couldn’t intimidate broadcasters. Court proceedings in this case are ongoing.
The abortion rights group is also challenging a $328,000 fine stemming from a preliminary filing by the Florida Bureau of Election Crimes and Security report released in October accusing Floridaians Protecting Freedom of “widespread voter fraud.” Campaign Director Lauren Brenzel debunked charges, and Mulfort said the fine case is also under legal proceedings, but he could not comment on either case.
Fifty-seven percent of Florida voters supported an abortion rights measure, but Amendment 4 fell brief of the 60% threshold required in the state, according to Phoenix. Although a majority of Floridians voted for abortion rights, the supermajority requirement means most abortions are banned after six weeks.
“We will all continue to look for ways we can ensure reproductive freedom in Florida and end abortion bans,” Mulfort said.
Like Arkansas, the abortion rights group in South Dakota has not received any funding from national chapters of Planned Parenthood or the American Civil Liberties Union. Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker’s Think Big America PAC given $790,000 in recent weeks preceding election day.
Dakotans for Health faced outrage from three anti-abortion committees – Life Defense Fund, No G for SD and Celebrate Life Committee – which raised $1.7 million compared to the Abortion Rights Coalition’s $840,000 in slow October. South Dakota Spotlight reported
Amendment G asked voters whether the state should prohibit lawmakers from regulating abortion until the end of the first trimester, allow regulation in the second trimester “in a manner that is reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman,” and allow the state to prohibit abortion in the third trimester unless the procedure is necessary to save the life or health of a pregnant patient.
Fifty-nine percent of South Dakota voters rejected the proposal, while 41% voted in favor.
Leader of Dakotans for Health Rick Weiland attributed the loss to lack of resources. “We were in a difficult moment. We knew we had to be on air at the end. We have budgeted for this month or so,” he said. “But the other side of the coin – the reason we didn’t have the resources – was that the national organizations wrote South Dakota off, which was really unfortunate.”
Weiland said he would not lead another effort to restore abortion rights in the state, but would support other groups. According to the ACLU and South Dakota chapters of Planned Parenthood, they did not support the campaign and initially questioned its timing and wording. Reflector.
“There is no longer room for compromise in politics,” Weiland said. “You have to be beholden to the ultra-right or the ultra-left, and you can’t do what we thought was right, which is just restore rights that women have had for almost 50 years.”
He also called on the Republican-controlled Legislature to add exceptions to the state’s abortion ban, which allows abortion only to save the mother’s life. “They could declare a state of emergency, they could pass a law exempting rape, incest and barren pregnancies, the governor could sign it, and women would at least have some access.”
He said such a mechanism could be adopted quickly, just as lawmakers accelerated work on the bill this year allowed citizens to remove their signatures on voting petitions. The author of this bill is Republican Jon Hansen. He also served as co-chair of the anti-abortion Life Defense Fund and is the modern speaker of the House of Representatives in South Dakota.
In Nebraska, voters faced a problem an unprecedented pair of voting questions about abortion. One initiative asked voters whether to restore the right to abortion until the fetus is viable. The second asked voters whether to restrict access after the first trimester and allow lawmakers to continue to regulate abortion. Most abortions are banned after 12 weeks in the state.
Even though the group fighting for abortion rights immediately started organizing it, it is scheduled to start operations in 2023 counteraction began only this spring — the restrictive measure prevailed.
“The abortion restrictions amendment … left the door open to further bans and restrictions,” said Andi Curry Grubb, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska. “We have dusted ourselves off, regrouped and are prepared for what comes next. We will not rest in our fight to protect every person’s right to control their life, body and future.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
