Abortion Rights: Everything You Need to Know for the Midterm Elections

The midterm elections will allow California, Kentucky, Vermont, and Michigan voters to decide whether abortion is protected under their state constitutions. 

Michigan and Kentucky are shaping as the two biggest battlegrounds on abortion this coming midterm election. Michigan is seen as a haven for constitutionally protecting abortion rights in the Midwest, where access is gradually shrinking.

An abortion ban will soon be implemented in Kentucky unless reproductive rights activists pull off a resentful triumph in the conservative Southern state. Elizabeth Nash, Guttmacher Institute's principal policy associate for state issues, said things must be considered, especially when changing the constitution, as it will always include the future. One must ensure to put in place protections that will surely last decades.

The Supreme court upended United States' politics in June after overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which mainly protected abortion as part of a constitutional right nationwide for almost 50 years. Eventually, many states swiftly banned abortion following the high court's ruling.

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Voting to amend its constitution to protect reproductive rights

Democrats have established abortion rights as paramount to their campaign to handle control of Congress and slowly expand the majorities in the midterms. President Joe Biden has pledged to codify Roe v. Wade through law if more Democratic senators are elected, and the party holds the House.

Hence, according to a November Quinnipiac Poll, many Americans appear more concerned with the economy, with only 10 percent of voters saying abortion is the most important issue ahead of Tuesday's midterm. Only 36 percent stated that inflation matters the most. Currently, Democrats and Republicans are in a neck-to-neck battle for the Senate, while many analysts acknowledge that the Grand Old Party (GOP) will retake the House.

This only means that the reinstatement of abortion rights at the federal level is improbable in the near term. Correspondingly, the battle over abortion will probably continue to play out at the state level for the foreseeable future. 

Going back, Michigan voters will decide whether to amend the state constitution to protect not only abortion but also reproductive rights broadly, per CNBC.

Abortion was never in jeopardy in these liberal states

The campaign primarily protects reproductive rights under the state constitution and comes after the legal battle in Michigan only last summer over a 91-year-old abortion ban. Thus, the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe soon raised the possibility that the specific ban from 1931 could again take effect in Michigan.

However, Kaitlyn Soligan, a spokesperson for the campaign, said that Kentucky citizens strongly believe that both small government and abortion bans are clear examples of the state going too far. 

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear noted that the constitutional amendments would protect and preserve in place the most powerful law in the country, especially when it comes to abortion services, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Further, California and Vermont will also be voting during the midterms on whether to protect abortion under their state constitutions. Abortion was never in jeopardy in these very liberal states, even after Roe fell. Some 75 percent of voters in the Green Mountain State advocate the amendment, per the October Poll from the University of New Hampshire.

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