Voters in at least six states will decide on abortion-related ballot measures this fall, in addition to five additional states that may join them if state officials determine the initiatives qualify for the ballot.

Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, many states have put restrictions on the controversial procedure, but abortion-rights activists have found success in reversing many of those limits through ballot measures. Ohio is the most recent state where voters weighed in on the abortion debate, with Issue 1 passing last year.

This year, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota have confirmed abortion ballot measures, while Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Montana, and Nebraska have measures still waiting on confirmation.

Here is where they stand:

Arkansas

The most recent developments have occurred in Arkansas, where earlier this week, Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston rejected an abortion ballot measure, determining that the organizers behind the initiative failed to submit required paperwork proving they had explained the signature gathering requirements in Arkansas to the paid canvassers they used to collect them. They also failed to identify the paid canvassers by name.

Arkansas’s abortion laws restrict nearly all abortions in the state, making an exception only when the life of the mother is at risk. Americans United for Life rated the state, which reported zero abortions last year, “the most pro-life state” of 2024.

The ballot measure, backed by a group calling itself Arkansans for Limited Government, would prohibit laws restricting abortions before 18 weeks gestation, and creates exceptions for rape, incest, fetal anomaly, and life or health of the mother. Critics of the ballot measures note that including “health” of the mother, as distinct from a threat to her life, opens the door wider for a doctor to allow abortions at any point during the pregnancy, including up until the moment of birth.

Ballot measure organizers have vowed to fight Thurston’s rejection of their initiative.

Arizona

Arizona also saw movement this week with its measure, which would establish a “fundamental right” to abortion until “fetal viability,” or the point at which the unborn child could theoretically survive outside the womb, generally considered around 24 weeks. It will also allow for late-term abortions if a doctor determines that the life of the mother is at risk or her physical or mental health is in danger.

Current Arizona law limits abortion at 15 weeks.

On Wednesday, organizers behind the expansive measure filed a lawsuit against Arizona officials who included the phrase “unborn human being” in the description of the ballot initiative on a voter information pamphlet. The lawsuit claims the language is not impartial or nonpartisan.

Organizers want the phrase replaced with “fetus,” which is often used by abortion access advocates to diminish the humanity of the unborn. The word “fetus” is included as a preferred phrase in style guides advocated by abortion industry leaders, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and other abortion access advocates.

“There is no way to avoid it,” Republican Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma said. “Because using the word ‘fetus’ is partial, as well, for those of us on the pro-life side.” 

While organizers submitted over 823,000 signatures for the ballot measure, officials still need to verify them for the initiative to be approved for the ballot.

Montana

Montana’s ballot initiative, which would block government restrictions on abortion prior to “viability” and includes exceptions for the life or health of the mother, has been in some legal turmoil recently.

This week, organizers sued Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen after she decided the state needed to reject the signatures of “inactive voters” who signed the petition for the initiative to obtain ballot access.

According to Montana law, those who miss two federal elections can have their voter registration become inactive. Jacobsen says the law requires signatories to be “qualified electors,” which she argues includes having an active voter status.

Abortion is already legal in Montana until “viability.”

Nebraska

Nebraskans could see dueling abortion measures on their ballot in November, as organizers both in favor of abortion and against it say they have collected well over the number of signatures required to make the ballot.

Like many other measures, the abortion-rights measure would enshrine access to abortion until fetal viability. The anti-abortion measure would enshrine current state law, which blocks the procedure after 12 weeks gestation with some exceptions.

If both make the ballot, only the one that receives the most votes would become part of the state constitution.

Colorado

In a state where abortion is already legal up until the moment of birth, organizers in Colorado are seeking to enshrine that access in the state’s constitution as well as allow the use of taxpayer dollars to fund the procedure.

The petition has officially been approved for the ballot and requires the vote of 55% of the electorate to amend the constitution.

Organizers for a counter-ballot initiative, which would have banned abortion in the state, failed to meet signature requirements.

Florida

Activists in Florida, which currently has a six-week gestational protection for the unborn, have secured a measure on the Sunshine State’s ballot that would override the current restriction and allow for abortion at “viability.”

Attorney General Ashley Moody initially challenged the term “viability” in the initiative language because of its vagueness, but the initiative made it on the ballot anyway.

In order for it to be approved, 60% of voters in Florida would have to vote in favor of the expansive abortion access.

Maryland

Maryland state law allows abortion until “viability,” but organizers there are trying to enshrine access in the state’s constitution. Abortion in Maryland is also legal after “viability” for fetal anomalies or if the mother’s life or health are at risk.

The measure has officially made the ballot, and it would establish a “right” to “reproductive freedom” defined to include “decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.”

That language could upend Maryland’s already lenient abortion laws and allow the procedure up until the moment of birth.

Nevada

Voters in Nevada will be asked to decide whether they want to enshrine as a constitutional “right” access to abortion until viability.

The measure, which was approved for the ballot in June, would allow for regulation of abortion after “viability,” but would create exceptions for life, physical health, or mental health of the mother.

Nevada law already allows abortion up to 24 weeks gestation.

South Dakota

An initiate in South Dakota would create a trimester framework for the regulation of abortion, starting with a complete ban on any restriction to the procedure in the first trimester.

In the second trimester, the state could “regulate the pregnant woman’s abortion decision and its effectuation only in ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman,” according to the language of the initiative, and a ban on the procedure would be allowed in the third trimester only if it provides exceptions for the life and health of the mother.

Abortion is currently banned in South Dakota.

Missouri

Missouri currently restricts almost all abortions and provides limited exceptions for the procedure. It became the first state to enact such a comprehensive ban after the overturn of Roe, and the state law threatens doctors who facilitate abortions with felony charges.

However, organizers in Missouri are attempting to expand access to the procedure up to “viability” and enshrine a “right” to “reproductive freedom,” defined as “the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive health care, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions,” in the state’s constitution.

Organizers have collected more than twice the required amount of signatures to make the ballot, but officials in Missouri have until July 30 to certify them before the initiative can officially be presented to voters.

New York

New York’s abortion-related amendment is different from the others because it would add language to the state’s bill of rights, barring the denial of rights based on “ethnicity, national origin, age, and disability” or “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”

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The measure was initially stricken from the ballot by a judge in upstate New York, but an appeals panel of judges restored it last month.

New York currently allows abortion until “viability.”