Reproductive Rights, Medicaid Expansion Found Receptive Audiences Among Voters

Voters in five states voted in support of abortion rights in Tuesday’s midterm elections, while efforts to legalize recreational marijuana use had mixed results.

In California, Michigan, and Vermont, voters approved ballot measures that would add abortion rights to their state constitutions, with California’s measure “prohibit[ing] the state from denying or interfering with an individual’s reproductive freedom. Michigan’s measure declared that state residents have a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which entails 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.” Vermont’s voters approved an amendment to the state constitution stating that “an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”

In Kentucky, voters have rejected an amendment that would have added a new section to the state’s constitution saying that “to protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.” And in Montana, voters said No to the proposed Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, which affirms that “infants born alive, including infants born alive after an abortion, are legal persons” and would have required healthcare providers to “take necessary actions to preserve the life of a born-alive infant.” Providers who were found guilty of “failing to take medically appropriate and reasonable actions to preserve a born-alive infant’s life” would have faced a fine of up to $50,000 and/or up to 20 years’ imprisonment.

Medicaid expansion was a winner in South Dakota, where voters approved a measure that will cover an additional 42,500 people under the program. Marijuana legalization for recreational use, on the other hand, got more mixed results: voters in South Dakota defeated a measure to “legaliz[e] the possession, use, and distribution of marijuana,” and voters in Arkansas and North Dakota defeated similar measures.

Meanwhile, in Maryland, voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution allowing the drug’s recreational use, as did voters in Missouri. And in Colorado, voters approved a measure that will decriminalize the personal possession, growing, sharing, and use — but not the sale — of five “natural psychedelic substances” including two substances found in psychedelic mushrooms, psilocybin and psilocin.

In other healthcare-related ballot measures, voters in Arizona approved a proposition to limit the interest rate on medical debt to no more than 3% and limit wage garnishment to a maximum of 10% of earnings. Those in debt also will be able to keep up to $5,000 in their bank accounts. In Oregon, a measure that would enshrine healthcare as a human right was failing narrowly at press time, 49.5% to 50.5%. And in California, voters said Yes to a measure banning the sale of flavored tobacco products in most stores and vending machines.