CHICAGO (AP) — After a series of defeats, anti-abortion activists and their Republican allies in state governments are using a range of strategies to counter proposed ballot initiatives designed to protect reproductive rights or prevent voters from having a say in this fall’s elections.
The tactics include attempts to have signatures removed from ballot initiatives, pushing competing ballot bills that could confuse voters, and months of delays through lawsuits over the language of ballot initiatives. Abortion rights advocates say many of the strategies build on strategies tested last year in Ohio, where voters finally passed a constitutional amendment affirming reproductive rights.
These strategies are being used in one form or another in at least seven states where referendums on codifying abortion and reproductive rights are scheduled for November. The battles over the planned statewide referendums are the latest sign of the deep divisions created by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision two years ago to strike down the constitutional right to abortion.
Last week, the court ruled in another major abortion case, unanimously upholding access to a drug used in most abortions in the United States, even as controversy over mifepristone continues in many states.
There is a lot at stake for both sides with the proposed ballot initiatives.
Where Republicans control the legislature and enact strict abortion restrictions, a statewide citizen initiative is often the only way to protect access to abortion and other reproductive rights. In all seven states where the issue has been on the ballot since 2022, voters have either enshrined abortion rights or rejected attempts to restrict them.
In South Dakota, lawmakers passed a law allowing citizens to withdraw their signatures on petitions, launching a sweeping effort by anti-abortion activists to invalidate a planned referendum on abortion rights by asking supporters to withdraw their signatures.
South Dakota’s secretary of state in May labeled hundreds of phone calls from an anti-abortion group a “scam” because the office accused them of impersonating government officials.
“It appears that the calls are an attempt to pressure voters to request that their names be removed from abortion rights petitions,” the office said in a statement.
Adam Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health, the organization behind the proposed measure, said it was part of an “orchestrated, organized effort across all states.”
“People want to vote on this issue and they don’t want that to happen,” he said of anti-abortion activists. “They are trying by any means possible to prevent a vote on this issue.”
A “Decline to Sign” campaign in Arkansas escalated this month after a conservative advocacy group released the names of paid poll workers for a vote on abortion rights. The group behind the vote, Arkansas for Limited Government, condemned the move as an intimidation tactic.
In Missouri, Republicans and anti-abortion activists opposed efforts to restore abortion rights through a constitutional amendment at every step of the process.
Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey blocked the abortion rights campaign for months last year. Then Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft tried to portray the proposal to voters as allowing “dangerous and unregulated abortions up to live birth.” A state appeals court ruled last year that Ashcroft’s language was politically partisan and struck down the proposal.
But Ashcroft’s actions and the legal battle cost the abortion rights campaign several months because it prevented its supporters from collecting the thousands of voter signatures needed to put the amendment on the ballot.
After the legal battles were settled, anti-abortion activists launched a “refuse to sign” campaign aimed at thwarting the abortion rights campaigns’ signature collection. At one point, voters received text messages falsely accusing the signers of trying to steal people’s personal information.
Republican lawmakers attempted to advance another ballot proposal to raise the bar for amending the Missouri Constitution, partly in the hope of making it harder to pass the abortion rights bill.
Both anti-abortion efforts failed, and the May abortion rights campaign garnered more than twice the number of voter signatures required. Now it’s up to Ashcroft’s office to verify the signatures and get them on the ballot.
Meanwhile, opposition groups in Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Nebraska have attempted to pass their own legislative amendments to codify existing abortion restrictions, but these efforts have failed to gather enough signatures in Florida and Colorado.
Jessie Hill, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland and an adviser to the Issue 1 campaign to codify abortion law in Ohio, said she has warned about the possibility of competing ballot bills that could confuse voters.
While efforts to keep abortion off the ballot follow a similar pattern to what she saw in Ohio last year, Hill said she is closely watching novel efforts across the country.
“The anti-abortion movement is still trying to find a formula to defeat these ballot measures,” Hill said.
A policy document leaked last month shows that Arizona Republicans are considering several competing measures to enshrine abortion restrictions in the state constitution. Possible petition names include the “Pregnant Women and Safe Abortion Protection Act,” the “Arizona Abortion and Reproductive Care Act,” or the “Arizona Abortion Protection Act.”
The document details how the alternative measures could undermine a proposal by reproductive rights advocacy groups that aims to codify the right to abortion based on feasibility, which is usually around 23 to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
“This leaked document revealed a plan to confuse voters by offering one or more competing ballot proposals with similar titles,” said Cheryl Bruce, campaign manager for Arizona for Abortion Access.
In Nebraska, anti-abortion activists are countering a planned referendum to protect reproductive rights with two initiatives of their own.
Allie Berry, campaign manager for the Nebraska Protect Our Rights campaign, which advocates for reproductive rights, said the competing measures are designed to deceive and confuse voters. She said the campaign is working to educate voters about the differences between each initiative.
“If they have to resort to deception and confusion, it shows that they are aware that most Nebraskans want to protect abortion rights,” she said.
A counter-initiative launched by anti-abortion activists in May aims to ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy. The petition, titled “Now Choose Life,” aims to give embryos “human rights.”
Another attempt, launched in March, would not go that far, but would instead enshrine the existing ban on abortion after the 12th week of pregnancy in the state constitution and at the same time give lawmakers the opportunity to pass further restrictions in the future.
The petition, titled “Protect Women and Children,” was supported by the national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and others in the state.
Sandy Danek, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life, called the petition a “common sense alternative measure.” She said that “over time and with our continued education,” the organization will seek to further restrict abortion.
“I see this as a step-by-step process that we have been working on for 50 years,” she said.
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Associated Press writer Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed to this report.
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