Life Is on the Ballot This Election

A bortion is a hot-button issue in state and federal elections across the country this Tuesday — and it should be. Decisions on abortion policy have returned to the American people and their elected representatives following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade this past June in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

So it makes sense that many people are paying attention to where candidates stand on life and what actions current lawmakers are taking concerning abortion. While it is vitally important that candidates who will protect life are elected, the ability of legislators in an increasing number of states to act could be obstructed by a nationwide movement to create a “right” to abortion and so-called “reproductive freedom” in state constitutions via activist state-court rulings and ballot initiatives.

On Election Day, Americans in five states will be directly voting on whether their state’s constitution protects life or protects abortion, which in turn will determine the extent to which their state legislators will be able to enact legal protections for women and the unborn. Similar ballot initiatives are expected in even more states in 2023 and 2024.

This means that, while state legislative battles continue, the new frontier for protecting life is directly at the ballot box. And abortion advocates are aggressively seeking to secure abortion access in as many states as possible.

Kansas held a vote in August on a proposed amendment that would have declared that the Kansas constitution does not bestow a right to abortion. Despite Kansas’s history as a majority pro-life state, the proposal shockingly and overwhelmingly failed, largely because of abortion advocates’ misinformation campaign on the possible effects of the amendment.

This misinformation campaign has spread to the five states considering constitutional amendments next week. In Vermont, California, and Michigan, voters will decide on proposals to enshrine extreme protections for abortion into their state constitutions. In Montana, voters will decide on a proposal designed to protect babies born alive after failed abortion procedures. In Kentucky, voters will decide on a proposal that affirms that no right to abortion or state taxpayer funding for abortion exists in the commonwealth’s constitution.

Pro-abortion activists misleadingly frame Vermont, California, and Michigan’s proposals as simply restoring Roe v. Wade at the state level (which would be disastrous enough), and they intentionally mischaracterize Montana and Kentucky’s proposals as attempts to take away “reproductive freedom” from women.

In reality, the opposite is true: While pro-life amendments aim to ensure that state lawmakers can continue to enact reasonable protections for women and the unborn, pro-abortion amendments push the expansion of abortion to radical levels. This includes language that allows for abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy, and that invalidates existing commonsense, life-affirming laws supported by the majority of Americans, such as limits on dangerous, late-term abortions and parental involvement for minors considering abortions.

Michigan’s Proposal 3 is one such initiative. If it passes, a broad, largely undefined right to “reproductive freedom” will be enshrined in Michigan’s constitution. This unprecedented new “right” would also undermine the state’s ability to protect the right of health-care professionals to refrain from participating in the ending of a human life and would allow a minor to be sterilized without parental consent or notice — such as is the natural consequence when a minor undergoes dangerous, “gender transition” procedures.

It may seem absurd to think that a swing state such as Michigan would implement such an extreme abortion regime, but the pro-abortion lobby is using both the overturning of Roe and the victory in Kansas as fuel for its radical agenda. They are targeting historically pro-life states.

For example, the Planned Parenthood operative who oversaw the campaign against the pro-life constitutional amendment in Kansas is now running the campaign against Kentucky’s proposal.

Let that sink in: The pro-abortion lobby views Kentucky — a seemingly safe, pro-life state — as winnable.

This should serve as a wake-up call to pro-life Americans and inspire us to take action. While voters in five states will consider abortion-related ballot measures now, the number of states set to face similar measures will continue to grow in the coming years. Pro-life Americans must understand how such measures reach the ballot in order to head off anti-life measures and understand what the actual impact of the ballot language will be to avoid falling prey to the abortion industry’s widespread false claims. We must also be vigilant in encouraging others to vote to protect life.

While we continue to celebrate the monumental victory of overturning Roe v. Wade, we must remember that the fight to protect the unborn is just as alive today as it was before the Dobbs decision. We must seize this opportunity to stop the extreme abortion agenda that Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry are pushing.

At the very least, it’s time to cast our votes for life at the ballot box.