Abortion Amendments are on the ballot in 10 states

 

Across the country, abortion rights will be on the ballot this November.

Everyone will be voting in races where the candidates’ positions on abortion will be consequential.

But some voters will be voting directly on abortion rights in the their state.

Voters in 10 states will decide whether to approve state constitutional amendments about abortion rights.

 

 

Voters in all 10 states will vote on proposed constitutional amendments that would protect abortion rights. Those states are New York, Maryland, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada.

But voters in Nebraska will also vote on a second proposed constitutional amendment that would limit abortion rights.

 

 

The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a non-profit that focuses on health care policy, has compiled information about these proposed constitutional amendments.

The KFF created a map that shows the states that will be voting on abortion-related state constitutional amendments this year.

 

You can click on the map to view a larger version of it. 

You can learn more about the specifics of the proposed amendments from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s report.

 

 

 

 Abortion Rights by State

 

In the US, several states have enacted abortion bans since the US Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion on June 24, 2022. 

The New York Times is tracking the status of abortion rights across the country.

You can view the legal status of abortion in every state on the map below.

You can find more detailed information on abortion rights in each state from the New York Times. 

Voters support abortion rights

 

Thus far, the side favoring abortion rights has won every time abortion-related state constitutional amendments have been put to a public vote since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

 

 

On August 2, 2022, Kansas was the first state to vote on abortion rights.

Kansas voters rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have explicitly said the constitution does not create or secure a right to abortion.

The amendment would have overturned an April 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that found the state constitution protects abortion rights.

The amendment would have also given the Kansas Legislature the legal authority to approve a restrictive abortion ban.

Voters rejected the proposed constitutional amendment by a margin of 18%.

 

 

 

Four states voted on proposed state constitutional amendments about abortion on November 8, 2022: Kentucky, Michigan, California, and Vermont.

 

Kentucky voted against a constitutional amendment that would have stated the constitution does not secure or protect a right to abortion.

Voters rejected the proposed constitutional amendment by a margin of 4.7%.

 

 

Michigan adopted a constitutional amendment that establishes a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including abortion.

The amendment protects an individual’s right to make decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.

The amendment allows the state to regulate abortion after fetal viability, unless in the professional judgement of an attending health care professional, an abortion is medically indicated to protect the life, or the physical or mental health, of the pregnant individual.

Voters approved the constitutional amendment by a margin of 13%.

 

 

California approved a constitutional amendment that protects an individual's right to reproductive freedom, including the rights to abortion and contraception.

Voters approved the constitutional amendment by a margin of 34%.

 

 

Vermont approved a constitutional amendment that protects an individual's right to personal reproductive autonomy.

The amendment doesn’t mention abortion specifically, but it’s generally understood to protect abortion rights.

Voters approved the amendment by a margin of 54%.

 

 

 

 

Abortion elections in 2023

 

Voters continued to support abortion rights in 2023.

 

Abortion was a key issue in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, which was held on April 4, 2023.

The candidate who supports abortion rights, Janet Protasiewicz, won by a margin of 11%.

 

 

Ohio approved a constitutional amendment that protects abortion rights on Nov. 7, 2023.

The amendment protects an individual’s right to make their own reproductive decisions, including decisions related to contraception, fertility treatment, continuing their pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.

The amendment allows the state to prohibit abortion after fetal viability, except when, in the professional judgement of a treating physician, an abortion is necessary to protect a pregnant patient’s life or health.

Voters approved the amendment by a margin of 14%.

 

 

Abortion rights also played a key role in the Kentucky gubernatorial election, which also took place on Nov. 7, 2023.

Incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear (D), who supports abortion rights, won the election by a margin of 5.1%.

Despite two wins for abortion rights in state-wide elections, abortion remains illegal in Kentucky, where it is banned in almost all circumstances, according to the New York Times.

 

 

Time will tell if abortion rights will continue to win every time voters have an opportunity to vote on the topic directly.  

 

 

Gender Census, 2024

 

The results of the 2024 Gender Census are similar to the results of last year’s survey.

 

This article focuses on this year’s results and how they compare to last year.

Definitions for identity terms mentioned in this article can be found in previous articles and in the subsequent articles in this series, but they are not my focus today.

 

The Gender Census is an annual global online survey for people whose gender falls outside the binary.

Before entering the survey, participants must check a box that says, “I confirm that I don’t really fit into just one of the two boxes of ‘always, solely, and completely a woman/girl’ or ‘always, solely, and completely a man/boy.”

More people participated in this year’s Gender Census than ever before.

A total of 48,645 people completed the survey, which was conducted from May 13 to June 17, 2024.

 

The countries with the most participants were the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Australia.

This year, 55% of respondents were from the United States.

 

Primary Source: Gender Census - 2024

 

 

 

Top Identity Words

 

Gender Census respondents were asked, “Which of the following best describes in English how you think of yourself?”

Respondents could choose as many checkboxes as they wished, as well as write in terms not included on the list.

 

I created a bar graph showing the top 11 identity words from the 2024 Gender Census.

 

 

 

 

Here is a version of the graph without the numbers on each bar.

 

 

The following tables list the percent of participants who identify with each identity term.

Let’s begin with the 11 terms that received more than 20%.

 

1. Nonbinary                                    60.4%

2. Queer                                          53.6%

3. Trans                                           44.7%

 

4. A Person / Human /                     39.1%

[My Name] / “I’m Just Me”

 

5. Transgender                                38.8%

6. Gender Non-Conforming             34.9%

7. Genderqueer                               32.6%

8. Enby                                            29.4%

9. Transmasculine                           26.4%

10. Genderfluid                                24.7%

11. Agender                                     23.1%

 

 

These 11 terms are common enough that I encourage allies and the public to become familiar with them.

I discussed the definitions for these terms in two articles on the results of the 2023 Gender Census.

I will discuss these terms again in subsequent articles that will explore how these terms performed in the Gender Census over the past decade.

 

 

Now let’s look at the terms that received less than 20% in this year’s Gender Census.

 

12. Fag                                          17.1%

13. Questioning or Unknown        13.9%

14. Transfeminine                         11.9%

15. Butch                                        9.8%

16. Demigirl                                    7.1%

17. Demiboy                                   6.0%

18. Bigender                                   5.7%

 

19. None/                                        4.6%

I do not describe myself

 

20. Cisgender                                 3.5%

21. Binary                                       1.6%

 

 

 

 

How ’24 compares to ‘23

 

The top 11 terms are in the same order as they were last year.

Just like last year, these 11 terms were the same ones that cleared my 20% benchmark for notability.

 

Unexpectedly, all of the top 11 terms were chosen by a slightly smaller percentage of respondents than last year.

A total of 17 terms saw a decrease compared to the most recent time they were listed as a checkbox option.

Considering all checkbox responses, the terms that saw the largest declines were Gender Non-Conforming (-3.6% from ’23) and “A Person/Human/ [My Name] / ‘I’m Just Me’” (-3.4% from ’23).

The terms that saw the next biggest declines were Transmasculine (-3.0 from ’23) and Enby (-2.9 from ’23).

 

 

Only 4 checkbox identity terms saw an increase compared to their last appearance, and all four are quite far down the list.

Transfeminine increased 2.0% from 2023, and Butch increased 1.9% from 2022, the last time it appeared as a checkbox.

Cisgender increased 1.0% from 2023, and Bigender increased by 0.2% from 2022, when it last appeared as a checkbox.

 

 

 

What’s Next?

 

Most of this series will examine the identity terms that appeared in this year’s Gender Census and compare how well they performed over the past 10 years of Gender Census surveys.

But our next article will instead take us back to the first Gender Census in 2013, to see what we can learn from how that pilot survey compares to the years that followed.