A proposal to amend Florida’s state constitution to guarantee abortion rights fell short of the 60% vote threshold needed to pass, Edison Research projected on Tuesday, making it the first such measure to fail since the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to the procedure in 2022.
Florida was among 10 states where abortion was on the ballot in Tuesday’s election for the U.S. presidency and control of Congress.
Edison projected a similar measure would pass in Arizona, which bans abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. That measure would amend the state constitution to guarantee abortion rights up to fetal viability, which is generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks.
Edison Research said the Florida measure was approved by 57% of voters with 95% of votes counted. Since it failed to meet the 60% threshold, a ban on abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy that came into affect in May will stand.
The ban after the sixth week has few exceptions.
Anti-abortion advocates celebrated the measure’s failure, with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser calling it “a momentous victory for life in Florida and for our entire country.”
Anna Hochkammer, director of Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition, a group that backed the measure, noted that 57% still represented a majority of voters.
“The fight goes on because the women and girls of Florida continue to suffer,” she said.
Before Tuesday, seven states had put the issue of abortion rights directly to voters following the Supreme Court decision to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling. Abortion rights campaigns had won all of those elections.
The Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, had sought to build support for Tuesday’s ballot measures that propose amending state constitutions to enshrine a right to abortion.
Democrats have blamed the Republican Party, led by former President Donald Trump, for the abortion bans that many of the measures seek to void. More than a dozen states banned abortion in all or most cases after the U.S. Supreme Court – with a Trump-appointed conservative majority – gutted the federal right to abortion.
Trump, a Florida resident, had said he would vote against the ballot measure, after initially appearing to suggest he would vote in favor.
The 10 states with abortion measures on the ballots on Tuesday were Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, Montana, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, New York and Maryland.
(Reuters)