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On Tuesday, ten American states also voted to include the right to abortion in state constitutions, in order to protect the possibility of terminating one’s pregnancy legally and safely from any future laws. Pro-abortion voters won in seven of these states: Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York. The referendums were held despite the fact that in recent months various “anti-choice” groups, those opposed to the right to abortion, had implemented various policies to block them or cause them to be boycotted.
In some of these states there will therefore be a noticeable change. In Missouri, abortion is currently banned with a few exceptions: based on the result of the referendum, the state Constitution should be changed to reflect and guarantee “the right to reproductive freedom”, but it is not yet clear how this right will then be translated into law. In Arizona it is currently forbidden to have an abortion after the 15th week: the amendment to the Constitution, however, will move the term between 23 and 24 weeks, the moment in which it is normally considered that the fetus is “viable”, that is, it can survive outside the uterus.
– Read also: The issue of abortion in the United States, seen from there
In other states, abortion is still legal, and referendums therefore serve to prevent the possibility that this may change in the future: this is the case of Nevada, which already allows abortion up to 24 weeks, Colorado, Maryland, Montana and of New York.
In three states with a strong Republican majority, the referendums were unsuccessful. In Florida, where with rare exceptions it is illegal to have an abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy (when many women don’t even know they are pregnant), the quorum necessary for the referendum to be valid was not exceeded. In South Dakota, 51.06 percent of voters voted not to expand abortion rights in the state, which is very restrictive. And in Nebraska, the only state in which two referendums on abortion were held – one to maintain the current situation, one to insert the right to abortion in the Constitution up to the 24th week – the first won: the termination of pregnancy it will therefore be legal only until the 12th week and practicable after that only in cases of medical emergencies or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest (a law very similar to the Italian one).
