Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and said it was up to each state to decide abortion rights, there have been six states that put the fate of reproductive rights on the ballot. The first ballot measure was from Kansas in August, where Republicans outnumber Democrats two-to-one. And yet the measure passed by close to a 20-point margin.
The other five were on midterm ballots decided this week. And every one of them affirmed the right to choose. It is no coincidence that voters who showed up to defend the right to choose were instrumental in drowning out the “red wave”, helping the Democrats do much better than predicted.
My sense is that most Republican politicians care more about winning than about abortions, and only used the issue to energize their base, especially evangelicals. Now that they see that it is a losing issue (even among Republican voters), I wonder if they will go back to their previous ways, pretending to fight against abortion, but not actually doing anything to prohibit it. In that case, we will probably see even more pro-choice ballot measures passing in the future. After all, the Republicans are supporting Herschel Walker for Senate, who hypocritically paid for women he had slept with to get abortions.
