state constitution

Kansas: Stealth attempt to ban abortion fails (news round-up)

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Voters Reject Republicans’ Attempt to Ban Abortion in Kansas Through Back Door The reason that the Supreme Court in such a red state doesn’t move in lockstep with the Republican legislature is its nominating process, known as a “merit-based” system. An independent commission, composed of five lawyers put on the commission by other lawyers and … Read more

Republicans are trying to raise the bar for voters to amend their state constitutions

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The uptick comes as progressives have found success with ballot measure campaigns to expand or protect abortion rights in state constitutions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022. In 2024, those initiatives passed in seven of the 10 states where they were on the ballot, including Missouri. Read more at … Read more

Abortion policy in Virginia isn’t settled: Why this year’s election is key

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Virginia’s constitutional amendment process calls for both chambers of the legislature to approve a ballot measure twice — with an election separating the two votes — before it can go to voters. Democrats won control of the legislature in 2023 and this year approved the measure with no Republican support. Its fate will be decided … Read more

Missouri’s voters restored abortion rights. Their leaders are trying to overrule them.

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Abortion opponents have sought before to connect abortion rights to gender-affirming care, including in the November election in Missouri. But this would be the first time a state attempted to outlaw both abortion and gender-affirming care in one constitutional amendment, at a moment when Republicans across the country, including President Donald Trump, have focused their … Read more

Arizona says it will not enforce abortion ban until related lawsuit plays out

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The lawsuit marks the latest effort by advocates to make good on the pro-abortion rights ballot measures passed by seven states in the November elections. While these measures amended states’ constitutions to protect or expand abortion rights, they did not actually rewrite pre-existing state laws. Abortion restrictions must now be knocked down through litigation or … Read more

Will state laws protect abortion under a Trump presidency? Probably not

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“State constitutions provide no protection whatsoever against Comstock Act, against the Trump national abortion ban, against fetal personhood within the 14th Amendment,” Cohen explained. “Which is why there were many of us who were trying to get the word out before the election, that if you really do care about reproductive freedom and vote accordingly … Read more

Missouri voted for an abortion rights amendment — and the Republicans who vow to overturn it

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Yet now abortion has been enshrined in the Missouri Constitution, and a litany of Republican officials are calling for lawmakers to put another constitutional amendment on the ballot rolling back those rights. “For years,” Harris said, “we’ve been discussing making it more difficult to put something in the state constitution. That’s something that Republicans need … Read more

‘A false sense of comfort’: Michigan Dems fight to keep voters’ attention on abortion

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“They’re not bringing it up, so I’m bringing it up,” she said. “I’m having to say to people: ‘Are you concerned about a national ban? Do you realize that if we don’t maintain the state legislature and supreme court, a Republican majority will actually go in and try to undo what Prop. 3, even though … Read more