Women’s Lives On The Ballot

November 2018 Ballot Initiatives to be Aware Of Summaries from Ballotpedia.org

Electing more Republican enablers of Donald Trump is only part of the plan that opponents of women’s rights have for Election Day.  A host of extremist ballot initiatives are before voters, financed by religious conservatives and right-wing billionaires, to further shred abortion rights and pave the way for a wholesale repeal of Roe v. Wade.

In Alabama, the “State Abortion Policy Amendment” would rewrite the state constitution to declare that the state’s policy is to recognize and support “the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life.” It further states that “nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of abortion.”

The measure was designed, according to its Republican sponsor, as a blueprint for states to use following a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

In Oregon, Measure 106, the Ban Public Funds for Abortion Initiative, targets low-income women by slashing Medicaid funding for abortion. Studies show that measures like the Oregon initiative lead to a rise in the number of unwanted pregnancies carried to term. A 2009 Guttmacher Institute report looked at five studies of Medicaid funding bans and concluded that such laws “influences about a quarter of Medicaid-eligible women to continue unwanted pregnancies.”

And in West Virginia, the “No Right To Abortion In Constitution Measure” would also add an explicit statement that “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion,” so that state can be ready too for a Supreme Court vote to repeal Roe v. Wade.

The right wing is gathering unprecedented power and their ambition to turn back the clock on women’s rights, voting rights, gender equality, and racial justice know no bounds. You can find out more about the most dangerous ballot initiatives across the country here.

Brett Kavanaugh just got seated on the Supreme Court, but his vote to overturn Roe is already being counted. States are lining up to make disastrous rulings from a newly-radicalized Supreme Court even worse. This election must be about stopping the measures that so endanger our rights.

For more than fifty years, NOW has been working to protect women’s rights by speaking out and mobilizing our grassroots. We need to put everything we have into these critical final days of the midterm elections. Let’s break every turnout record and make sure more women vote than ever before.

For Women’s Lives and Happiness,

Toni Van Pelt