Since the Supreme Court removed the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, the people are taking it back state by state.

Before last week’s elections, voters in six states had either written the right to abortion into their constitutions or rejected ballot measures that would have restricted it.

On Tuesday, that figure more than doubled. In seven of the ten states where abortion rights measures were up for debate, they prevailed. From the most liberal of these states (New York) to the most conservative (Missouri), and regardless of how they voted in the presidential race, voters affirmed the right to control their own bodies. Even in Florida, where a measure on abortion rights failed, he won a more decisive majority than Donald Trump. (We’ll talk more about this later.)

Ballot measures in New York, Maryland, Colorado, and Montana enshrined the right to abortion (and, in New York, other equal rights protections) in the state constitutions where they are already substantially protected by law. Abortion is legal up to fetal viability in Montana, for example, but lawmakers have repeatedly tried to restrict it.

These measures may prove unnecessary in liberal states where abortion remains legal – and let’s hope they will. But any state that codifies the right to abortion in its constitution reinforces it against the whims of elected officials. California voters in 2022 passed a constitutional amendment strengthening the state’s already strict protections against abortion.

The biggest victories Tuesday were in Arizona, which banned abortion after 15 weeks, and Missouri, where abortion was illegal with no exceptions for incest or rape. Missouri Lawmakers Almost Missed an Opportunity to Attack Abortion Rights: Lawmaker Slams a measure make it illegal to help someone leave the state to have an abortion.

Both states now have a constitutionally guaranteed right to abortion until it becomes viable. Although legal or legislative efforts will be required to lift these now-unconstitutional bans, this is astonishing progress for these states and the people who live there.

These election results should send a powerful message to state and federal elected officials as well as the new Trump administration: Americans will not tolerate their reproductive rights being violated in blue, purple or red states. Federal officials should keep that in mind as conservative attorneys general consider trying to block abortifacient medications to be provided by mail.

Three abortion rights measures failed last week, all in states that desperately could have used constitutional amendments to guarantee access to abortion.

In Florida, which prohibits abortion beyond six weeks – a time when most women do not even know they are pregnant – Amendment 4 would have constitutionally guaranteed the right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability, or approximately 24 weeks. The initiative garnered a good majority of 57.2% but it fell 3 points short of the state’s undemocratic 60% threshold for approving constitutional amendments. Trump carried the state with a smaller majority, 56.1%.

A failed measure in South Dakota, where abortion is banned, would have allowed the procedure up to 12 weeks, which is considered restrictive in other states. Major reproductive rights groups such as the regional organization Planned Parenthood did not believe that this measure would make it possible to adequately restore right to abortion and refused to support it.

And in Nebraska, where abortion is prohibited after 12 weeks with exceptions, the presence of two measures on the ballot created some confusion. The one that failed, Initiative 439, would have guaranteed a right to abortion until it was viable and was supported by supporters of abortion access. The one that succeeded, Initiative 434, bans most abortions after 12 weeks. Under this measure, abortion could remain legal for up to 12 weeks, but the legislator has complete freedom to further restrict the right to abortion, up to a total ban.

Advocates still have work to do to convince voters in states where abortion is banned and restricted that there is an electoral path to restoring reproductive rights. “Every state with a constitutional process for citizen initiative and restrictions on abortion is a place we will look to,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which worked on ballot measures in Missouri and elsewhere this election season. .

In states that do not allow citizen initiatives, progress will be more difficult. But citizens in all types of states, liberal and conservative, have shown that they want to protect their right to control their own bodies.