Florida voters Tuesday, November 5, rejected creating a constitutional right to abortion, a political win for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that will keep in place the state’s ban on most abortions after the first six weeks of pregnancy.
It’s the first ballot measure victory for abortion opponents in any state since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, a decision that ended the nationwide right to abortion and opened the door to bans in most GOP-controlled states, protections in Democrat-dominated ones and new political and legal battles across the country.
The Florida measure failed to clear the required 60% voter approval threshold to pass constitutional amendments in Florida. Most states require a simple majority.
The defeat makes permanent a shift in the Southern abortion landscape that began when the state’s six-week ban took effect in May. That removed Florida as a destination for abortion for many women from nearby states with deeper bans and also led to far more women from the state traveling to obtain abortion. The nearest states with looser restrictions are North Carolina and Virginia – hundreds of miles away.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement that the result is "a momentous victory for life in Florida and for our entire country," praising DeSantis for leading the charge against the measure.
DeSantis, a Republican with a national profile, has steered state GOP funds to the cause. His administration has weighed in, too, with a campaign against the measure, investigators questioning people who signed petitions to add it to the ballot and threats to TV stations that aired one commercial supporting it.
Florida is one of nine states with abortion-related ballot questions in Tuesday’s election.
Through the ballot measures and candidate choices, Tuesday is the clearest opportunity yet for large numbers of voters to weigh in on the issue since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending the nationwide right to abortion and opening the door to bans in most GOP-controlled states, protections in Democrat-dominated ones and new political battles.
'Juggernaut support'
The presence of the measures was also expected to spur turnout for a range of crucial races for office. The future legality and availability of abortion hinges not only on ballot measures, as policies could shift depending on who controls Congress and the presidency. Same with state governments — including legislatures that pursue new laws, state supreme courts that determine the laws’ constitutionality, attorneys general who decide whether to defend them and district attorneys who enforce them.
If all the abortion rights measures pass, "It’s a sign of how much of a juggernaut support for reproductive rights has become," said Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California Davis School of Law and an expert on the history of reproductive rights in the US.
"If some of them fail," she added, "then you’re going to see some conservatives looking for guidance to see what the magic ingredient was that made it possible for conservatives to stem the tide."
Currently, 13 states are enforcing bans at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Four more bar abortion in most cases after about six weeks of pregnancy – before women often realize they’re pregnant. Despite the bans, the number of monthly abortions in the U.S. has risen slightly, because of the growing use of abortion pills and organized efforts to help women travel for abortion. Still, advocates say the bans have reduced access, especially for lower-income and minority residents of the states with bans.
The issue is resonating with voters. About one-fourth said abortion policy was the single most important factor for their vote, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide. Close to half said it was an important factor, but not the most important. Just over 1 in 10 said it was a minor factor.
The outcomes of ballot initiatives that seek to overturn strict abortion bans in Florida and Missouri were very important to a majority of voters in the states. More than half of Florida voters identified the result of the amendment as very important, while roughly 6 in 10 of Missouri’s voters said the same, the survey found.
'Trump abortion bans'
The bans also are part of a key argument in the presidential race. Vice President Kamala Harris calls them "Trump abortion bans," noting former President Donald Trump’s role in overturning Roe v. Wade. Harris, meanwhile, has portrayed herself as a direct, consistent advocate for reproductive health and rights, including Black maternal health.
Trump has struggled to thread a divide between his own base of anti-abortion supporters and the majority of Americans who support abortion rights, leaning on his catch-all response that abortion rights should be left up to individual states.
His shifting stances on reproductive rights include vowing in October to veto a national abortion ban, just weeks after the presidential debate when he repeatedly declined to say. Trump also has regularly taken credit for appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
After voting in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, Trump was asked twice how he voted on the abortion measure there – and didn’t answer directly. The first time he said he did "a great job bringing it back to the States." The second time, he snapped at a reporter, saying, “You should stop talking about that.”