Election Night Sees Removal of Pro-Life Protections in Multiple States

An additional seven states enshrined pro-abortion measures in their constitutions Nov. 5 in voter initiatives, including Missouri and Arizona, which both had strong pro-life laws in place. Other states that overwhelmingly expanded access to abortion are Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, and New York. Those states join seven others that earlier passed measures to make abortion more available since the federal reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

However, on Nov. 5 voters in three states — Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota — rejected efforts to loosen abortion restrictions. Unlike most of the other states involved that required a simple majority for passage, Florida necessitated a super majority of 60%. The amendment there garnered 57%, meaning that Florida’s statute banning abortion as soon as a heartbeat is detected at about six weeks gestation will remain in place. This year, pro-abortion groups invested a record $100 million in advertising in Florida — 10 times as much as opponents — to pass an amendment.
In South Dakota, 58.6% of those going to the polls rejected a proposal to legalize abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. Abortion remains effectively banned in the state.

Nebraska this month featured dueling ballot measures regarding abortion. Over 51% of participating constituents rejected a proposition to expand abortion access to “fetal viability,” usually around the 23rd week of gestation. In addition, 55% of Nebraska voters kept intact the existing prohibition on abortion after 12 weeks.

“We celebrate the incredible victories in Florida, South Dakota, and Nebraska, where the extreme abortion amendments were defeated,” says Erica Steinmiller-Perdomo, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) Center for Public Policy in Washington, D.C. “These states have chosen to protect unborn life and to empower women.”

PRO CHOICE, NO CHOICE

However, in seven of the 10 states, new laws will make abortion more readily available.

“These amendments do not protect the health of women,” says Cindi Boston, vice president of the Columbus, Ohio-based Heartbeat International, the world’s largest pregnancy help movement organization. “They do not bring forward other pregnancy options, and really promote abortion as the only choice. Women deserve better.”

The voter-approved “abortion access act” in Arizona undoes the state’s law that prohibited the procedure after the 15th week of pregnancy. Abortion-minded females no longer could be required to wait 24 hours, undergo an ultrasound, ensure that a physician performs the abortion, or require that a minor obtain parental consent for an abortion.

The narrowest approval came in Missouri, even though a majority of voters in 104 of the state’s 115 counties opposed it. Nevertheless, overall 51.6% of voters agreed to allow abortion until “fetal viability.” Pro-abortion groups spent over $30 million, six times more than opponents. One commercial featured a woman in a church pew calling the amendment indispensable “because Missourians should have faith, family, and freedom guiding their personal decisions.” Pro-family organizations warned that the imprecise wording of the “right for reproductive freedom” petition could open the door for unrestricted abortion until the point of live birth.

“The pro-abortion side preyed on people’s fears, running commercials that women wouldn’t be able to receive care for a miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillborn birth, or even gynecological care,” says Sheila L. Harper, founder of the AG abortion-recovery ministry SaveOne based in Hendersonville, Tennessee. “These were outright lies that people believed.”

The Missouri outcome scuttles multiple pro-life laws passed by legislators in the past generation, including outlawing abortion from conception, requiring minors to obtain parental consent, a 72-hour waiting period, the option to see an ultrasound before making a decision, and prohibition of the use of telemedicine for an at-home chemical abortion.

The results from Missouri distressed Boston, who served as the first chief executive officer of Pregnancy Care Center in Springfield, Missouri, and is a graduate of the AG’s Evangel University in Springfield.

“So many profound laws on the books have all been wiped away with the stroke of the ballot initiative,” says Boston, 63.

According to Steinmiller-Perdomo, states that decided to codify abortion as a legal right will see radical changes.

“These residents will be shackled by the chains of extreme amendments,” says Steinmiller-Perdomo, 34. “We know that the majority of Americans don’t want late-term abortions, taxpayer-funded abortions, minors getting abortions without their parents being notified, or medical professionals being forced to participate in or perform abortions. In other states that earlier passed such amendments, like Ohio and Michigan, abortion activists have been advocating for these measures.”

Steinmiller-Perdomo believes that abortion proponents in the seven states that approved amendments will be filing lawsuits to scale back existing protections for women and unborn children.

“Litigation will test limits and expose how extreme these initiatives are, essentially allowing for unregulated, unrestricted abortion on demand during all nine months of pregnancy,” Steinmiller-Perdomo says. Laws on the books regulating everything from health and safety standards at abortion facilities to protecting disabled babies from abortion now are in jeopardy, she says.

The day after the election, in Missouri the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood filed suits to remove all existing abortion restrictions from state law.

CHURCH WAKE-UP CALL

Boston partially blames misleading advertisements for swaying uninformed voters. Moreover, she says the results should be a wake-up call for Christians across the nation.

Boston noted that many churchgoers may have voted to overturn protections for the unborn. “If people in the pews would have voted to protect life, the amendments surely would not have passed in the surging sweep to remove current legislation and entrench abortion,” she says.

Boston believes education about biblical foundations regarding the sanctity of life will make a difference going forward.

“If every pastor, Sunday School teacher, and small group walked in unison, we could stop the mighty army that is fighting against life every day,” Boston says. “This is a call to the Church to lead the way on the scriptural mandate of helping the life of the baby and to help mothers.”

Steinmiller-Perdomo agrees that alerting voters about what the misleading and vaguely worded proposed amendments do and threaten to do will be key in stopping the tide of such initiatives in the future.

“As a movement, we need to continue educating people,” Steinmiller-Perdomo says. “Tearing an unborn child apart in a mother’s womb is not a ‘right.’”

Boston suggests that pro-lifers in the next election cycle be more intentional about getting their own measures onto ballots.

“We must rise up and defend life, much like the Hebrew midwives defended life in their day,” Boston says. “We must be engaged and active, invest our time and money, and pray.”

Harper, 59, notes that abortion initiatives made it to the ballot because of grassroots efforts to get petitions signed. She believes if pro-lifers had been equally involved, it would have swayed the totals.

“What if churches in all these states had talked week after week about the initiatives coming down the pike?” asks Harper, who is the first female presbyter for the AG’s Tennessee Ministry Network.

Boston is encouraged that a more pro-life president and Congress will be installed in January than currently exists. However, the Republican national platform this year, for the first time in over four decades, omitted a call for a constitutional amendment to protect unborn babies.

Harper believes changing hearts will be more important than changing ballots.

“We’ve got to start thinking differently in how we can fight this,” Harper says. “We’ve got to stop thinking that politics is our only hope on this issue.”

Harper thinks that abortion recovery narratives such as her own can have a lasting impact.

“Sharing the recovery stories of men and women who have lived through the horrors of this choice will make abortion unthinkable,” Harper says.

John W. Kennedy

John W. Kennedy served as news editor of AG News from its inception in 2014 until retiring in 2023. He previously spent 15 years as news editor of the Pentecostal Evangel and seven years as news editor at Christianity Today.