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☆ Abortion Ballot Measures Have Had Success. This Year Is Their Biggest Challenge.
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-23 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ballot measures on abortion rights have succeeded beyond what even their proponents imagined when the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. They have not only enshrined a constitutional right to abortion and restored access to the procedure in red and purple states. They have also converted what had been a voter mobilization advantage for Republicans into one for Democrats. Now the strategy — and an unbroken winning streak — faces its biggest test ever, with 10 states asking voters whether to establish a right to abortion in their constitutions. On Friday, Nebraska became the final state to certify — it will be the only state with two measures, one sponsored by abortion rights supporters and the other by opponents.

Persons: Roe, Wade Organizations: United States, Democrats, U.S . House Locations: Nebraska, battlegrounds, Arizona , Nevada, Montana

☆ Arizona and Missouri Will Vote on Abortion in November
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-13 | by ( Matthew Cullen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Arizona voters will decide on Election Day whether to establish a right to abortion in the state Constitution. The ballot measure is a major victory for Democrats, who have used the issue of abortion to energize their voters. “Poll numbers for abortion rights are higher than poll numbers for Kamala Harris,” my colleague Kate Zernike, who covers abortion, told me. “In Arizona, Democrats think this ballot measure can really help them draw more voters.”A similar question will appear on the ballot in Missouri, state officials there said today. If voters pass the measure, Missouri would become the first state where voters overturned a near-total ban, radically reshaping access for millions of residents.

Persons: Roe, Wade, Kamala Harris, ”, Kate Zernike, “, Kate, Harris Organizations: Democrats Locations: Arizona, Missouri

New York residency is especially important to Mr. Kennedy because his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, lists California as her home. Mr. Kennedy, 70, an environmental lawyer, spends most of his time at a home in Los Angeles that he shares with his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines. “New York has been his residence continuously since 1964, and Mr. Kennedy has deep ties to it,” Mr. Savino said in the statement. Mr. Kennedy revealed the bear-dumping in a video he posted on social media just before a critical New Yorker profile that included the same anecdote was published. After the bear story became public — resulting in a barrage of public criticism and mockery — Mr. Kennedy sought to fire back, placing a post on X.com on Tuesday, attacking the “mainstream media.”“The more you smear me,” Mr. Kennedy wrote, “the more I’ll keep speaking.”

Persons: Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Kennedy, —, Kennedy’s, William F, Savino, “, ”, Paul Rossi, Christina L, Lis Smith, Donald J, Biden, Trump, Kamala Harris, Nicole Shanahan, Cheryl Hines, ” Mr, Barbara Moss, Ms, Moss, David Michaelis, Nancy Steiner, Steiner, Michaelis, Moss’s, Bobby, Mr Organizations: Clear Choice, Democrat, Constitution, Democratic National Committee, Democratic Party, Democratic, Trump, Mr, New, New York Post, Westchester, Yorker Locations: York, Albany, N.Y, New York, Manhattan, U.S, Michigan, North Carolina, Hawaii , New Jersey, North Carolina . New York, California, Los Angeles, Katonah, New York City, Westchester County, “, Central Park, X.com

☆ Arizona Will Vote on Abortion in November: Could That Give Democrats an Edge?
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-13 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Arizona voters will decide in November whether to establish a right to abortion in the state constitution, a measure that could strongly influence turnout in a battleground state that is critical to the presidential election as well as control of the Senate. In the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had established a right to abortion in the United States Constitution, abortion rights groups have prevailed in all seven states where the question of abortion has been put directly before voters. Similar measures on abortion rights are already on the November ballot in six other states, but only two are battleground states — Arizona and Nevada. (The others are Florida, South Dakota, Colorado, New York and Maryland.) And Democrats are hoping that support for abortion rights will drive higher turnout in their favor.

Persons: Roe, Wade Organizations: Senate, United Locations: Arizona, Nevada, Florida, South Dakota , Colorado , New York, Maryland

☆ She Needed an Emergency Abortion. Doctors in Idaho Put Her on a Plane.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-28 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nicole Miller had gone to the emergency room in Boise, Idaho, after waking up with heavy bleeding in her 20th week of pregnancy. By afternoon, she was still leaking amniotic fluid and hemorrhaging and, now in a panic, struggling to understand why the doctor was telling her that she needed to leave the state to be treated. “If I need saving, you’re not going to help me?” she recalls asking. “I just need to stay alive so I can be around for my two other kids,” nurses reported her saying as she arrived at the hospital in Salt Lake City, 14 hours after she had arrived in the emergency room back home. Only when she woke up the next morning did she understand, because a nurse told her, that she was airlifted so she could have an abortion.

Persons: Nicole Miller, you’re, ”, Miller, “ Organizations: Boise Medical Locations: Boise , Idaho, St, Boise, Utah, Salt Lake City

☆ In South Carolina, 3 G.O.P. Senators Fought an Abortion Ban. They Lost Their Races.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-26 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last year, the five self-proclaimed “Sister Senators” from South Carolina were awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award after they joined together across party lines to block the legislature from passing a near-total abortion ban. But a prize from the nation’s most storied Democratic family may not be the best calling card in Republican primaries in the red-state South. All three of the Republican women in the group of five — the others were a Democrat and an independent — faced primary challenges, and all three have now lost. State Senator Katrina Shealy, who was the only female member of the chamber after she won in 2012, failed to win a runoff on Tuesday against the son of a former legislator. The two others lost earlier this month: Penry Gustafson lost by a 64 point margin; Sandy Senn lost by 33 votes, small enough to trigger a recount, but conceded the race before that.

Persons: “, John F, Katrina Shealy, Penry Gustafson, Sandy Senn Organizations: Kennedy, Republican, Democrat Locations: South Carolina

☆ Abortion Debate Shifts as Election Nears: ‘Now It’s About Pregnancy’
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-24 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the decades that Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, abortion rights groups tried to shore up support for it by declaring “Abortion Is Health Care.”Only now, two years after the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, and just six months before the presidential election, has the slogan taken on the force of reality. The public conversation about abortion has grown into one about the complexities of pregnancy and reproduction, as the consequences of bans have played out in the news. The question is no longer just whether you can get an abortion, but also, Can you get one if pregnancy complications put you in septic shock? That shift helps explain why a record percentage of Americans are now declaring themselves single-issue voters on abortion rights — especially among Black voters, Democrats, women and those ages 18 to 29. Republican women are increasingly saying their party’s opposition to abortion is too extreme, and Democrats are running on the issue after years of running away from it.

Persons: Roe, Wade Organizations: Health, Black

☆ In Montana, Abortion Rights Groups Submit Signatures for Ballot Measure in November
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A coalition of abortion rights groups in Montana announced Friday that it had submitted enough signatures to put a measure on the November ballot that would ask voters to affirm a right to reproductive freedom in the State Constitution. Montana would join four other states — Colorado, South Dakota, Florida and New York — with similar ballot measures this fall. The signatures must be certified by county clerks, who send them to the secretary of state, who has until Aug. 22 to set the ballot questions. Abortion is legal in Montana until viability, or roughly 24 weeks of pregnancy, because its highest court ruled in 1999 that the state Constitution’s provisions on privacy protect a right to abortion. Leaders of the coalition, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, say the explicit constitutional right to abortion will prevent the Republican-controlled Legislature or future courts from undoing the 1999 ruling.

Organizations: State Constitution, Republican Locations: Montana, State, State Constitution . Montana, — Colorado, South Dakota, Florida, New York

☆ Texas Supreme Court Rejects Challenge on Exceptions to Abortion Ban
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday unanimously rejected a challenge to the state’s strict abortion ban, ruling against a group of 22 women and abortion providers who sought to expand the exceptions for medical emergencies under the law. While the challenge will continue in trial court, the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, would almost certainly appeal any loss there, and the high court’s decision Friday made clear that he would ultimately prevail. “I will continue to defend the laws enacted by the Legislature and uphold the values of the people of Texas by doing everything in my power to protect mothers and babies,” Mr. Paxton said in a statement. The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, was the first on behalf of women denied abortions after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. While the case revolves around the question of what counts as an exception — unlike other lawsuits, it did not seek to overturn a state ban — it has changed the political debate around abortion by underscoring the potentially devastating medical consequences of abortion bans even for women who were not seeking to end unwanted pregnancies.

Persons: Ken Paxton, Mr, Paxton, Roe, Wade Organizations: Texas Supreme, Center for Reproductive, United States Locations: Texas

☆ The Unlikely Women Fighting for Abortion Rights
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-27 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For a long time, many women who had abortions because of catastrophic fetal diagnoses told their stories only privately. Grieving pregnancies they dearly wanted and fearing the stigma of abortion, they sought the closely guarded comfort of online communities identified by the way many doctors had described the procedure — TFMR, or “termination for medical reasons.”In the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, their pain has been compounded into anger by new abortion bans across the country. While these women account for a fraction of abortions in the United States, they have emerged as the most powerful voices in the nation’s post-Roe debate, speaking out against bans with their stories of being forced across state lines and left to feel like criminals in seeking care. Many of these women started out opposing abortion, but as they have changed their minds, they have changed the way Americans speak about it. Shifting from private anguish to public outrage, they have also helped shift public opinion toward more support for abortion.

Persons: Roe, Wade, “, ”, Riata Little Walker Organizations: ” Locations: United States, Casper, Colorado

☆ Missouri and South Dakota Move Toward Abortion Rights Ballot Questions
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two more states with near-total abortion bans are poised to have citizen-sponsored measures on the ballot this year that would allow voters to reverse those bans by establishing a right to abortion in their state constitutions. On Friday, a coalition of abortion rights groups in Missouri turned in 380,159 signatures to put the amendment on the ballot, nearly double the 172,000 signatures required by law. The Missouri organizers’ announcement followed a petition drive in South Dakota that announced on Wednesday that it, too, had turned in many more signatures than required for a ballot amendment there. Groups in about 10 other states have secured spots on the ballot for abortion rights measures or are collecting signatures to do so. Those include Arizona and Nevada, swing states where Democrats are hoping that voters who are newly energized around abortion rights will help President Biden win re-election.

Persons: Roe, Wade, Biden Organizations: United States Locations: Missouri, South Dakota, Arizona, Nevada

☆ A Utah Mountain Town Brings Back an Old Idea: The One-Room Schoolhouse
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-21 | by ( Kate Zernike | Ruth Fremson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WHY WE’RE HEREWe’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In Utah, a one-room schoolhouse has helped preserve the family atmosphere of a cult-favorite ski town. They come for the powder snow, which regularly tops lists of the deepest and lightest in the country. They discover the simplicity and warmth of life in a town at the dead end of a box canyon with a year-round population of roughly 300. Young people who had children left because there was no school, and the closest school district would not send a bus up the narrow canyon road.

Persons: — Locations: Utah, Alta , Utah, Alta

☆ Wyoming Banned Abortion. She Opened an Abortion Clinic Anyway.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-10 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was not such an implausible idea, back in 2020, when a philanthropist emailed Julie Burkhart to ask if she would consider opening an abortion clinic in Wyoming, one of the nation’s most conservative states and the one that had twice given Donald Trump his biggest margin of victory. Dr. Tiller’s work had drawn the wrath of the nation’s anti-abortion groups — his clinic had been blockaded, bombed and flooded with a hose before he was shot to death while ushering his regular Sunday church service. When she reopened it instead of moving, the death threats and stalkers shifted to Ms. Burkhart, or, as they called her, Julie Darkheart. Running a clinic in a red state had worn her down, and she was looking to put Wichita and all it represented behind her. But if Wyoming was even more conservative than Kansas, she understood that it was more Cowboy State conservatism, shaped by self-reliance and small government, less interested in regulating what people do behind their drapes.

Persons: Julie Burkhart, Donald Trump, Burkhart, George Tiller, Tiller’s, stalkers, Julie Darkheart Locations: Wyoming, Wichita, Kan, Kansas

☆ The Campus Wars Aren’t About Gender … Are They?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the first weeks of the war between Israel and Hamas, Nancy Andrews read about American college presidents under fire and something nagged at her. Why, she wondered, did it seem like so many of those presidents were women? The vast majority — 80 percent — were against universities led by women, even though just 30 percent of colleges and universities nationwide have female presidents. Of the seven complaints filed in the weeks after the war began, all were seeking investigations of schools led by women. “Four women presidents, all new in their roles, far too new to have shaped the culture on their campuses, called before Congress?

Persons: Nancy Andrews, Andrews, Elizabeth Magill, Claudine Gay, Sally Kornbluth, Dr, “ Organizations: Duke Medical School, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Republicans, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Locations: Israel, Columbia

☆ Abortion-Rights Backers in Missouri Start Ballot Initiative to Undo Ban
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-18 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A coalition of reproductive-rights groups in Missouri kicked off a campaign on Thursday to establish a right to abortion in the state constitution, setting up the nation’s next big test of public support for legalized abortion. Missouri was the first state to officially outlaw abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade 18 months ago. A successful ballot measure there could make it the first state where a citizen-led initiative reverses a near-total ban. Abortion-rights supporters have prevailed on all seven ballot measures put before voters since Roe was overturned, and groups in roughly 10 other states are attempting to pass similar abortion-rights measures this year. In Missouri, though, they face a tight timeline, fierce opposition from the Republicans who control state government, and a long tradition of anti-abortion politics.

Persons: Roe, Wade Locations: Missouri

☆ Sandra O’Connor’s Extraordinary Final Chapter
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Kate Zernike | More About Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Sandra Day O’Connor gave up lifetime tenure on the Supreme Court — a job she loved and one with extraordinary power — to care for her husband of 52 years as he deteriorated from dementia. That decision, in 2005, began a poignant final chapter of her extraordinary life. Justice O’Connor, who died on Friday at the age of 93, had hoped to care for her husband at their home in Arizona. He was unhappy about the move, but then something remarkable happened: He found romance with another woman who lived there. The justice kept up her regular visits, beaming next to the happy couple as they held hands on a porch swing.

Persons: Sandra Day O’Connor, Justice O’Connor, O’Connor, ”, Scott Locations: Arizona

☆ South Carolina Supreme Court Upholds Abortion Law, Reversing Earlier Decision
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Kate Zernike | More About Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the state’s new near-total ban on abortion by a 4-1 vote, reversing a decision it had made in January that struck down a similar ban and declared that the State Constitution’s protections for privacy included a right to abortion. The court’s decision was not unexpected, because the makeup of the bench had changed, and Republicans in the State Legislature had passed a new abortion law in the hopes that it would find a friendlier audience with the new court. The decision in January was written by the court’s only female justice; she retired and South Carolina now has the nation’s only all-male high court. The decision repeated what the justices said in January about a right to privacy in the State Constitution, but said the Legislature had addressed the concerns in the first law and “balanced” the interests of pregnant women with those of the fetus. “To be sure, the 2023 Act infringes on a woman’s right of privacy and bodily autonomy,” Justice John Kittredge wrote for the majority.

Persons: John Kittredge Organizations: South Carolina Supreme, Legislature, South Locations: South Carolina, State

☆ Texas Judge Says Doctors Can Use ‘Good Faith Judgment’ in Providing Abortions
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Kate Zernike | More About Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Texas judge ruled on Friday that the state must allow doctors to provide abortions to pregnant women whose health or lives are in danger, or whose fetuses have little likelihood of survival. The ruling broadens and clarifies the limited exceptions granted in the state’s bans, among the strictest in the country. And it temporarily bars state officials — until the full case is decided — from prosecuting doctors who, in their “good faith judgment and in consultation with the pregnant person,” determine that an abortion is medically necessary. In her ruling, Judge Jessica Mangrum, elected as a Democrat in 2020, wrote that “the uncertainty regarding the scope of the medical exception and the related threat of enforcement of Texas’ abortion bans has created an imminent risk” for doctors who “will have no choice but to bar or delay the provision of abortion care” to women who require the procedure to prevent death or serious health risks. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit from 13 women who had been denied abortions despite pregnancy complications that they said caused grave and potentially fatal risks to their health.

Persons: Jessica Mangrum, ” Locations: Texas

☆ Ohio Moves Closer to Ballot Issue That Would Protect Abortion Rights
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Kate Zernike | More About Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights said on Wednesday that it had collected roughly 710,000 signatures across all of the state’s 88 counties over the last 12 weeks. Under state law, the coalition needed 413,466 to qualify for the ballot. Supporters of abortion rights are turning to ballot measures in the aftermath of the ruling last year by the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which for 50 years had guaranteed a right to abortion in the federal Constitution. They are betting on polls showing that public opinion increasingly supports some right to abortion, and opposes the bans and stricter laws that conservative state legislatures have enacted since the court’s decision. Voters in six states, including conservative ones such as Kentucky and Kansas, voted to protect or establish a right to abortion in their constitutions in last year’s elections, and abortion rights advocates in about 10 other states are considering similar plans.

Persons: Ohio, Roe, Wade Organizations: Ohioans United, Reproductive Rights, United States Locations: state’s, Kentucky, Kansas

☆ How a Year Without Roe Shifted American Views on Abortion
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For decades, Americans had settled around an uneasy truce on abortion. Even if most people weren’t happy with the status quo, public opinion about the legality and morality of abortion remained relatively static. As the decision triggered state bans and animated voters in the midterms, it shook complacency and forced many people to reconsider their positions. In the year since, polling shows that what had been considered stable ground has begun to shift: For the first time, a majority of Americans say abortion is “morally acceptable.” A majority now believes abortion laws are too strict. They are significantly more likely to identify, in the language of polls, as “pro-choice” over “pro-life,” for the first time in two decades.

Persons: Roe, Wade

☆ South Carolina House Passes Six-Week Abortion Ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

His approval, if granted, would dramatically reduce abortion access for women in the state and across the region. Most Southern states have passed abortion bans since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last June. But because the South Carolina legislature has not been able to agree on the terms of a ban, the state still allows abortion up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. BackgroundThe bill will test a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling in January, which found a right to abortion in the state Constitution and struck down a previous six-week ban. Henry McMaster, a Republican who supports a six-week ban, called the Senate into its own special session next week to debate the House version of the bill.

☆ The Unexpected Women Blocking South Carolina’s Near-Total Abortion Ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Kate Zernike | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, advocates on either side presumed that the country would divide along the bright color lines: red states completely banning abortion, blue states protecting it. That prediction failed to anticipate the Sister Senators. The Sisters, as they call themselves, are the women in the South Carolina State Senate — the only women, three Republicans, one Independent and one Democrat, in a legislature that ranks 47th among states in the proportion of women. As a block, they are refusing to allow the legislature to pass a near-total ban on abortion, despite a Republican supermajority. Three times in eight months, Republican leaders in the chamber have tried to ban abortion beginning at conception.

☆ Opinion | Republicans Did Something Most People Don’t Like, So They’re Changing the Rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

There’s still room for innovation, however, and in the past year Republicans have opened new fronts in the war for minority rule. One element in these campaigns, an aggressive battle to limit the reach of the referendum process, stands out in particular. It’s an abrupt change from earlier decades, when Republicans used referendums to build support and enthusiasm among their voters on both social and economic issues. If they get their way, the measure could go to voters in an August special election (previously, Ohio Republicans had opposed August special elections). One proposal would require 60 percent of the vote; the other two would require a two-thirds vote.

☆ Losing Ballot Issues on Abortion, G.O.P. Now Tries to Keep Them Off the Ballot
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Kate Zernike | Michael Wines | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. King has joined a lawsuit seeking to strike down the new restraints on ballot initiatives in Arkansas. The chief sponsor of the measure, State Representative Mike Henderson, did not respond to phone and email requests for comment. Legislatures began accelerating bans and other restrictions on abortion beginning a decade ago, after Republicans took control of more statehouses. It was among the first states to attempt a so-called heartbeat law, banning abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, when many women do not realize they are pregnant. (That law passed in 2019 and went into effect after Roe was overturned but has been temporarily blocked by a state court.)

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