'Such Small Steps.' States Without Citizen-Led Ballot Initiatives Leave Abortion-Rights Advocates With Little Recourse

[In It to Win It]

TIME

The majority of the state ballot measures meant to protect abortion access this year passed, and most of them were citizen-led initiatives, meaning organizers petitioned to get the measures on the ballot. Those types of measures give everyday Americans agency to fight for abortion rights now that the issue has been left to the states. But not all states allow citizens to put forward statewide ballot initiatives, including some with the strictest abortion laws in the country, leaving reproductive-rights advocates there with little recourse.

“It essentially leaves us powerless when we're talking about adding initiatives that people actually care about on the ballot,” says Chasity Wilson, the executive director of the Louisiana Abortion Fund.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade, advocates have turned to the citizen-led initiative process to try and enshrine the right to abortion in state constitutions. Polling has found that the majority of Americans say that abortion should be legal in all or most situations, and when abortion has been on the ballot, it’s won most of the time.

Ballot measures can lead to tangible change—this year, Missouri made history as the first state since the Dobbs decision to pass a citizen-led ballot measure that is expected to overturn its near-total abortion ban. But only about half of all states allow citizens to propose statewide ballot measures; in other states, the legislatures would have to add measures to the ballot. And some of the states that don’t allow for this process are also states that have banned abortion in nearly all situations, including Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas.

“I think this is something that was frustrating throughout the campaign when the conversation of abortion would come up and [Donald] Trump in particular would talk about how we’re just sending it back to the states and giving the voters and the states the opportunity [to decide this],” says Michelle Erenberg, the executive director of the reproductive-rights organization Lift Louisiana. “It really ignored the fact that there are many states in which citizen-led ballot initiatives aren’t possible.”

[lapfog_1]

1. oh it is much worse than that

much worse.

If Trump and AG Matt Gaetz ( I just threw up in my mount a little bit ) actually DO decide to enforce the Comstock Act... and declare all instruments of abortion illegal to send across state lines and the FDA ( run by RFK jr - my stomach is now empty and I am doing dry heaves over the toilet ) decides that the abortion pills are not safe and effective... we could easily see a federal abortion ban.

You know that the Christian nationalists will be in Trump's ear about doing this.

[In It to Win It]

2. Republicans are still in court trying to yank the FDA's approval of abortion pills. Would AG Matt Gaetz defend the FDA?

Would AG Matt Gaetz allow DOJ to litigate on behalf the FDA to keep their approval of the abortion pills?