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HERE ARE THE STATES DECIDING WHETHER YOU CAN GET AN ABORTION  
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Makela Reid
August 15, 2026
The American Prospect
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_ This fall, several states will vote to enshrine abortion access,
while one asks voters to weigh in on the issue a second time. _

Missouri residents and abortion rights advocates attend a Missourians
for Constitutional Freedom event, February 6, 2024, in Kansas City,
Missouri. , Ed Zurga/AP Photo

 

Affordability and war may be top of mind for many voters, but the
fight for abortion rights still rages. In November, Virginia, Idaho,
and Nevada will weigh in on ballot initiatives to protect abortion
access. Virginia’s proposed constitutional amendment would enshrine
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a “right to reproductive freedom,” allowing women to make their
own choices about their pregnancy barring a “compelling state
interest.”

Nevada voters approved the Right to Abortion Initiative
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in 2024, but constitutional amendments must be approved in two
even-numbered election years, so voters must approve the question
again. Idaho currently has one of the country’s strictest abortion
bans, but the Idaho Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act Initiative
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would remove that ban and enable individuals to make their own choices
about childbirth care, contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage
care, and other supports throughout pregnancy.

Two states have tried and failed to curb existing protections. In
Montana, far-right legislators hoped to put an amendment on the ballot
that would redefine “personhood”
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in an attempt to subvert the abortion protections approved by voters
in 2024
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However, that effort fell short
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last year. Conservative Colorado legislators hoped to repeal the
constitutional right to abortion that voters approved in 2024, but the
proponents of the 2026 constitutional initiative did not collect
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the 124,238 signatures required by the August 3 deadline.

That leaves Missouri with the midterms’ biggest abortion battle.
After the _Dobbs_ decision in 2022, Missouri was the first state in
the country to implement a near-total ban on abortion. But two years
later, voters approved a new slate of reproductive protections. Yet
with abortions increasing due to a number of factors, including the
availability of medication and telehealth abortion
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this time around anti-abortion advocates and Republican lawmakers are
using novel tactics to coax voters into overturning the 2024
constitutional amendment.

Missouri Amendment 3 would effectively bring back a near-total ban
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with very few exceptions before 12 weeks. “When we’ve talked to
Missourians across the state about why they’re voting no [on
Amendment 3], it’s really clear that Missourians are confused and
frustrated,” Tori Schafer, the ACLU of Missouri’s director of
policy and campaigns, told the _Prospect_. “The question we get a
lot is, ‘Why do we need to vote on this again?’ And the answer is,
politicians are trying to undo your vote and want to ban abortion in
Missouri,” she says.

Missouri legislators are even using the title of the amendment to
confuse voters. In 2024, pro-choice Missourians had to vote “Yes on
3” to approve the ballot initiative. On November 3, they must vote
“No on 3” to protect abortion access, plus health care services
including prenatal care, postpartum care, birth control, miscarriage
care, and respectful birthing conditions, all of which were protected
by the original Amendment 3.

But in addition to banning abortion, Amendment 3 proposes to prohibit
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gender transition surgeries as well as hormones and hormone blockers
for individuals under the age of 18, unless these medications are
“unrelated to the purpose of a gender transition.” But the catch
is these services are already illegal in Missouri under a 2023 law,
and a state supreme court decision upheld
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that law in January.

“It’s very clear that what politicians are trying to do with this
is to trick voters [into] voting against something they just passed.
[But] we’re confident that Missourians will see through the
deceptive trick because it’s so clearly and obviously trying to
overturn their votes and ban abortion in [nearly all] cases,” says
Schafer. “Politicians banned health care for transgender youth in
Missouri three years ago now, and that ban will remain in effect after
this election, no matter how voters vote on this amendment.”

The Missouri Constitution states
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that a proposed amendment “shall not contain more than one subject
and matters properly connected therewith,” a provision intended
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to prevent state lawmakers from playing politics by attaching other
issues to a proposed measure. Last year, however, a state appeals
court decided
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that the amendment did not violate the single-subject rule because
both abortion and gender-affirming care are “closely related to the
single subject of reproductive healthcare
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“This [amendment] is ridiculous,” says Steven Greene, a professor
of political science at North Carolina State University. “You
can’t just take two totally different things and put them in one
amendment and say, ‘Here’s an amendment to say you have to be 18
to drive. Oh, and also that we’re going to change how we elect state
senators.’” He views the initiative “as an effort to undermine
abortion protections by tying it to the very unpopular position [in
Missouri] of allowing transgender health care for minors.”

“You see ballot initiatives all the time that won’t change
anything, where there’s already something against the law,” Greene
notes, “because ballot initiatives are regularly used in a purely
political rather than policy sense—they’re not looking to actually
change a policy—they are looking to activate certain groups of
voters and hopefully get them to participate more in the election.”

This is not the first time that Missouri legislators have blatantly
ignored the will of the voters. In 2024, Missourians also approved
Proposition A
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which established one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours
worked and increased the minimum wage to $13.75 by 2025. However, the
Missouri legislature passed
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a bill repealing those sick leave provisions.

Missouri’s anti-abortion fight is out of sync with voters’
sentiments. In their book _Not Going Back: Public Opinion on Abortion
in Post-Dobbs America_, political scientists Laurel Elder, Steven
Greene, and Mary-Kate Lizotte explain
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that Americans’ views have shifted drastically since the Supreme
Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion. People who
once held moderate views on the issue now increasingly support
abortion for any reason—from medical emergencies to unwanted
pregnancies. Even more strikingly, many Republicans now support the
procedure.

“Missourians are sick and tired of politicians in Jefferson City
ignoring the will of the people,” says Schafer of the ACLU of
Missouri. “That’s what we’re going to see, frankly, in midterms
across the country—folks rejecting politicians that continue to
ignore what voters want and frankly deserve, especially when it comes
to health care access.”

Makela Reid is an editorial intern at The American Prospect.

_The American Prospect_ is devoted to promoting informed discussion
on public policy from a progressive perspective. In print and online,
the _Prospect_ brings a narrative, journalistic approach to complex
issues, addressing the policy alternatives and the politics necessary
to create good legislation. We help to dispel myths, challenge
conventional wisdom, and expand the dialogue.

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