Pro-life measures go down to defeat on Nov. 8

NASHVILLE (BP and local reports) – Pro-life advocates appeared to suffer across-the-board losses on five state ballot initiatives Nov. 8 in the first nationwide election since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court case from Mississippi that resulted in the reversal of Roe v. Wade decision on June 22 of last year.

The Roe decision by the Court in 1973 legalized abortion nationwide throughout all nine months of pregnancy. In overturning Roe, the high court returned regulation of abortion to the several states.

In August of last year, Kansas voters defeated an amendment that would have affirmed that the state constitution does not protect the right to abortion or require public funding of abortion.

In Kentucky, voters defeated a constitutional amendment similar to the one that failed in Kansas. As of Nov. 9, Amendment 2 trailed by 52% – 48% with an estimated 90% of votes counted, according to a report by The New York Times using results from The Associated Press.

California, already entrenched as the country’s No. 1 abortion-providing state, approved the Right to Reproductive Freedom Act. By a 65% – 35% margin with an estimated 42% of votes reporting, Californians chose to amend their constitution to bar the state from denying or interfering “with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions,” including the right to have an abortion.

Michigan’s voters decided to add a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” which includes abortion, to the state’s constitution by a 56% – 44% margin with 89% of votes reported. The amendment allows the state to restrict abortion after the preborn child is viable, although it cannot ban the procedure if it is “medically indicated to protect the life or physical or mental health” of the mother.

By a 77% – 23% margin with an estimated 95% of votes in, Vermont passed Proposal 5 which protects abortion access by inserting into the state constitution a “right to personal reproductive autonomy.” That right, which includes abortion, can only be thwarted if the state has a compelling interest that can be accomplished “by the least restrictive means.”

In Montana, the total was 52 % – 48% against the Born-alive Infant Protection Act with an estimated 82% of votes reported. The measure would have required a health-care provider to “take all medically appropriate and reasonable actions to preserve the life and health” of a child born alive, including those who survive an attempted abortion that inadvertently fails to kill the baby.

While pro-lifers lost at the polls Nov. 8, prohibitions on abortion have taken effect in 15 states since the Supreme Court reversed Roe. It is anticipated about half of the 50 states will enact laws that prohibit abortion either throughout pregnancy or at a stage of pregnancy, although courts have blocked the enforcement of some for now.

“Total/near total” restrictions on abortion in eight states await a final ruling in the courts, SBA Pro-life America reported. A similar prohibition will soon take effect in Iowa, according to the organization.

In addition to Mississippi, states with complete or nearly complete bans on abortion, according to SBA Pro-life America, are:

— Alabama.

— Arkansas.

— Georgia.

— Idaho.

— Kentucky.

— Louisiana.

— Missouri.

— Oklahoma.

— South Dakota.

— Tennessee.

— Texas.

— West Virginia.

— Wisconsin.

Nine days before the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling, messengers to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Anaheim, Calif., continued a more than four decade pattern of pro-life resolutions by urging the justices to overturnRoe and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that affirmed it.

The resolution also urged state legislators to pass “pro-life policies that uphold the dignity and value of every human life, including both vulnerable women and children.”