Where is abortion on the ballot in 2024? Debate to take center stage heading into tight races
Debates over abortion rights are expected to ramp up as the country prepares for the 2024 election.
The issue has dominated recent races and will appear next year on state ballot measures − and in both Republican and Democratic campaign messages.
Access to the medical procedure returned to the hands of states after the Supreme Court last summer overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark case guaranteeing abortion rights nationally. In the wake of the ruling, abortion has taken center stage, alongside issues ranging from the economy to education.
The issue has particularly benefitted Democrats in recent elections. In this year's off-cycle elections, voters in Ohio backed a constitutional amendment to protect abortion access, while Virginia Democrats took both chambers of the state legislature campaigning on warnings about Republicans’ plans for abortion limits.
What can voters across the country expect to hear about abortion in 2024?
Abortion on the ballot in Maryland, New York
Voters in Maryland and New York will have the chance to weigh in on amendments to their state’s constitution enshrining reproductive rights.
Abortion is currently legal through viability in both states, which can be about 24 weeks.
Maryland’s ballot measure would explicitly protect “decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.” New York’s amendment, while not mentioning abortion by name, would update the state’s equal protection clause to bar discrimination based on “pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
Democrats rush to get more ballot measures
Other states could follow suit and also vote on abortion in 2024.
Following their success in Ohio's 2023 elections, Democrats are pushing to get similar measures on ballots next November, including in swing states such as Arizona, Florida and Nevada, as well as in reliably red Nebraska and South Dakota.
The deadlines and number of signatures on a statewide petition to create a ballot measure vary by state, with most cut-off dates falling next summer.
On the other side of the debate, Republicans have considered measures to codify abortion restrictions in states like Iowa and Pennsylvania.
Abortion: A top talking point in 2024
Even in states without a specific ballot measure, abortion is expected to remain a debate in many 2024 races.
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is running for reelection in Ohio, where voters overwhelmingly backed enshrining abortion rights, has already started criticizing his GOP opponents’ abortion positions in attack ads, CNN reported.
And candidates at the top of the ticket will likely continue to address the issue too.
Fielding questions on abortion at all three GOP debates so far, Republican presidential hopefuls have butted heads when it comes to a national approach to abortion. But with the exit of former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott from the race – the two White House hopefuls who were the most outspoken for a federal abortion limit – most GOP candidates have expressed a preference for leaving the issue in states’ hands.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Where is abortion on the ballot in 2024? What to know after Ohio vote
