This story will be updated as election results are available.
Voters in Idaho struck down a ballot measure related to abortion rights on Tuesday. It was one of four closely watched abortion measures on state ballots across the country. Another measure to amend the state constitution in Nevada was unresolved into the early morning following an Election Day marked by historic Democratic Party victories that captured the U.S. Senate and House.
Both the Idaho and Nevada measures — Proposition 1 and Question 6, respectively — sought to expand abortion rights.
Idaho
Proposition 1 would have created a legal avenue to challenge the state’s near-total ban on abortions. It would have allowed for abortion until the point of fetal viability and for medical emergencies, among other reasons.
The Associated Press called the race early Wednesday morning after about 85% of the votes were tallied. At that point, 333,481 voters, or 55.4%, voted “No,” while 268,793, or 44.6%, voted in favor.
Idaho’s near-total abortion ban went into effect in 2022, 30 days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a landmark abortion rights case from 1973. Leading up to Election Day, campaigns for and against the measure had raised some $10 million in combined donations.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took a stance against it, as well as Question 6 in Nevada. It donated $1 million to fight Idaho’s Proposition 1. A spokesperson for the church cited its exceptions allowing abortion, including pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, a physician’s determination that the life or health of the mother is in jeopardy, and severe medical complications that would not allow the baby to survive beyond birth.
The group behind the proposition, Idahoans United for Women and Families, pulled in support from national supporters, including a political action committee called Government That Works PAC, which donated roughly $650,000 toward the proposition — the largest single donor — and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who donated $250,000.
Nevada
With abortions already legal through 24 weeks after conception in Nevada, Ballot Question 6 seeks to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution. Initial results indicated it was passing, but the measure’s fate was unclear as of early Wednesday morning.
KUNR News in Reno reported that some polling places had long lines of voters waiting to cast ballots.
Before the polls there closed, Nevada Public Radio sent reporter Anne Davis to speak with voters waiting in line to cast their ballots.
“I think it should be a constitutional right just for anybody to do what they want with their body,” said Rita, who chose not to give her last name, and planned to vote for the measure.
“I don’t agree with abortion. To me, it’s a life, and we are not capable or qualified to decide what should happen with that life,” said another voter, Richard Szuran.
Near Reno, Nevada, first-generation immigrant Litalily Sacluti says abortion rights are among the issues that shaped her vote.
“I think it's pretty messed up to take away someone's right to be able to control their own body,” she told KUNR.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 13 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia — enacted total or near-total bans on abortion, according to a roundup by the Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive health research and policy organization.
After legal restrictions were enacted, some states that protect abortion rights started seeing an influx of patients traveling from more restrictive states, such as Texans traveling to Colorado or Idahoans going to Oregon and Washington.
With Proposition 1 defeated, the current ban remains unchanged and those living in Idaho seeking an abortion may still need to go out of state. The state allows abortion in limited situations.
Voters in Missouri rejected Amendment 3 — a dual bill focused on abortion rights, generally, and transgender procedures for minors, specifically — by a vote of 1,173,172 to 941,065, according to unofficial results as of 1 a.m. MST.
In Virginia, however — where abortion is banned after the third trimester — voters passed Question 1, enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, by a vote of about 2.1 million to 1.3 million.
