By Carrie Baker for Ms. Magazine.
Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for Kentucky News Connection reporting for the Ms. Magazine-Public News Service Collaboration

Overturning Roe v. Wade in June, the Supreme Court declared that "the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives." But with rampant voter suppression and gerrymandering on the rise-greenlit by the Supreme Court-these "elected representatives" often do not fairly represent the people. This makes ballot initiatives an increasingly important avenue for ensuring women's rights against the extremism of ruby red legislatures. Just look at Kansas.

On Aug. 2, Kansas primary voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed the Republican-dominated state Legislature to severely restrict access to abortion. The amendment was a response to a 2019 state Supreme Court decision in Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt, which established that the Kansas Bill of Rights includes a right to abortion. The amendment would have overturned this decision and declared that "the constitution of the state of Kansas ... does not create or secure a right to abortion."

Some 59 percent of voters cast ballots against the proposed amendment in an election with a strong turnout-especially among Democrats and Independents-compared to the 2018 midterm primary. This despite the fact that there were no heavily contested Democratic primary races that would have pulled in their votes, and Independents in Kansas are not allowed to vote in partisan candidate races.

In the November elections, there will be five more ballot measures on abortion across the U.S.-the most on record for any single year.

Constitutional Amendment 2 would amend Kentucky's Bill of Rights to declare that there is no state constitutional right to abortion. Supporters backed the measure to forestall Kentucky courts from making a ruling similar to the Kansas Supreme Court's Hodes decision.

Protect Kentucky Access is leading the campaign against the amendment. "Healthcare and the right to bodily autonomy are basic human rights," said Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky state director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky. "This constitutional amendment puts tens of thousands of Kentuckians' access to safe, legal abortion at risk, and inserts the government into our individual, personal healthcare decisions. Abortion is healthcare and is a core component of social and economic equality for individuals, their families and their communities."

Another anti-abortion measure will appear on the midterm ballot in Montana, declaring that "infants born alive at any stage of development are legal persons" and punishing healthcare providers with civil penalties and up to 20 years of jail time if they do not provide medical care. Currently, Montana law requires medical care only if an infant is viable.

By contrast, three states have ballot measures that would add explicit protections for abortion to state constitutions. While courts in nine states have ruled that provisions related to privacy or personal autonomy secure the right to abortion, and other states have guaranteed this right through statute, no state currently provides an explicit constitutional protection for abortion. Voters in Vermont, California and Michigan have the opportunity to change that.

In Vermont, voters will decide on Proposal 5, the Right to Personal Reproductive Autonomy Amendment to the Vermont Constitution, which states that "an individual's right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one's own life course." The amendment would prohibit this constitutional right from being "denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means."

In California, voters will weigh in on Proposition 1, the Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment, which would revise the California Constitution to forbid the state from interfering with or denying "an individual's reproductive freedom ... which includes their fundamental right to ... have an abortion and ... contraceptives."

Advocates in Michigan submitted 753,759 signatures to place a measure on the November ballot that would create a state constitutional right to reproductive freedom, defined as "the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care." The ballot initiative would allow the state to regulate abortion after fetal viability; however, the state could not ban the use of abortion to "protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual," as determined by an attending healthcare professional.

In addition to these abortion-related measures, the general election ballot in Nevada includes an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that would add language to the Nevada Constitution that "prohibits the denial or abridgment of rights on account of an individual's race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin." State Sen. Pat Spearman (D), a sponsor of the amendment, said, "We've waited long enough for equal rights to be incorporated into our state constitution. ... We must be brave in protecting the weak, the downtrodden, the oppressed. We must be brave in lifting our fellow Nevadans to a place of justice and equality." If the amendment passes, Nevada will become the 27th state to have an ERA in its constitution.

Other noteworthy ballot initiatives include minimum wage amendments in Nevada and Nebraska, a collective bargaining measure in Illinois, a right to healthcare amendment in Oregon, a Medicaid expansion initiative in South Dakota and a New Mexico amendment to direct public money to early childhood programs.

Voters in five states-Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont-will decide on ballot measures to repeal language from their state constitutions that allows for enslavement or servitude as punishments for crimes or, in Vermont, for the payment of debts, damages or fines.

If the Kansas primary vote is a sign, these ballot measures could expand women's rights significantly in a number of key states.

Carrie Baker wrote this article for Ms. Magazine.


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The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this week on Idaho's near-total abortion ban.

Idaho v. United States is on the docket for Wednesday.

At issue is whether the ban violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which prohibits hospitals from denying patients medical care because of financial or insurance issues.

The Idaho law has restricted access to reproductive care. Rory Cole is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Washington who is from Idaho and plans to practice in the state.

"A lot of these patients that we've been seeing don't really have a choice anymore, in that sense of it's not about if they want to be pregnant or not," said Cole. "It's about saving their life or their health, and we can't help them in Idaho."

Other states will be watching Idaho's Supreme Court case, and it could have an outsize impact on rural states that ban abortion, leaving patients with few options for care.

Cole said the Idaho law puts doctors in a tough place.

"The wording is so vague in the legislation here, that it makes it just extraordinarily challenging for doctors to kind of know what is legal and what is not legal here now," said Cole, "which is a place that no physician wants to exist in."

Idaho has seen an exodus of medical providers. The state has lost 22% of its practicing obstetricians since its abortion ban took effect, according to a recent report.

"Ultimately," said Cole, "that place of needing to help the people in Idaho and the people here deserving wonderful care was what brought me to basically try and stay in Idaho for residency."




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Vending machines commonly found in workplace break rooms generally contain soft drinks or snacks but one machine in Indianapolis dispenses unconventional items at the turn of a knob.

The Plan B morning-after pill, pregnancy tests and condoms are displayed in a clear glass case inside a colorful blue and orange dispenser. The items provide easy access to protection against an unwanted pregnancy and are free of charge.

Melissa Gruver, organizing director of the feminist organization Indiana Task FORCE, said it operates like a traditional vending machine.

"You just push whenever you want and it falls down, and you reach your hand through the little door and you pull it out, take it with you," Gruver explained.

A 2022 Indiana Department of Health Termination Report indicated 9,600 pregnancies were aborted, with Marion County recording the highest number of unwanted pregnancies. The report also noted the average age of a woman in Indiana who sought an abortion was 27, and 67% of all terminated pregnancies occurred within four to eight weeks of conception.

The state's contentious near-total abortion ban, which was upheld by the Indiana Supreme Court last year, has stoked fears lawmakers may begin restricting a woman's choice of birth control.

Indiana Task FORCE and reproductive health groups All-Options and the Midwest Access Coalition want the emergency contraceptive vending machine to serve as a gathering spot for community conversations on reproductive rights and sexual health.

"We've long been organizing our communities to bring about reproductive justice, which we didn't have before and we definitely don't have it now," Gruver pointed out. "But what we know to be true is that there are more of us that want access to reproductive care than those that try to stop it. We're excited to continue to work to meet this need now, and to organize for a better community."

Gruver hopes to have one dispenser in every Indiana region in the future to add to the single machine currently in an eastside Indianapolis grocery store. She added some universities in the state already have vending machines offering similar contraception products but users have to purchase the items.

This story is based on original reporting by Mary Claire Molloy for Mirror Indy.


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