The Quickie: 2024 Ballot Initiatives Preview

Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.

In today’s Quickie: A preview of 2024 ballot initiatives and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia call out Governor Youngkin’s budget proposal.

2024 BALLOT INITIATIVES PREVIEW: In the coming year, a new wave of ballot initiatives could determine abortion access across several states. The Washington Post detailed the current state of ballot initiatives across the country. Here’s what’s ahead: 

• Maryland and New York: Both state legislatures have already approved initiatives to codify the right to an abortion on the ballot in 2024. New York’s initiative, the Equal Rights Amendment, would also establish protections on the basis of ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, or sex and gender. Planned Parenthood affiliates in both states are supporting these campaigns. 
• Arizona: The Arizona for Abortion Access Act, needs 383,923 valid signatures by early July, followed by a simple majority among voters to pass. The campaign coalition includes Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona. 
• Nevada: Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom continues to collect signatures for a reproductive freedom amendment  despite a lower court’s decision that struck down the petition. However, the campaign  anticipates a favorable ruling from the state’s supreme court that would allow the measure to move forward.
• Colorado: A proposed initiative supported by the coalition Coloradans Protecting Freedom would not only enshrine the right to an abortion but expand health insurance coverage for abortion care. 
• Montana: A proposed initiative to amend the state’s constitution was filed in November by abortion rights activists, including Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana. Pending approval of ballot language, the measure will need almost 60,360 signatures by mid-July to make it onto the ballot.
• Nebraska: Advocates, including Planned Parenthood North Central States, have filed a ballot initiative to protect abortion access in the state.  The campaign, Protect Our Rights, has launched a volunteer effort to collect the necessary signatures before the state’s July deadline.
• Florida: Floridians Protecting Freedom is campaigning to put the Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion on the 2024 ballot and has submitted 1.4 million signatures to the Board of Elections. If the state supreme court approves the ballot language, the measure is on track to appear before voters in November. Planned Parenthood’s Florida affiliates are core members of the campaign team.  
• Missouri: Multiple petitions have been submitted in an attempt to restore access to abortion.  These measures remain caught up in legal battles with Missouri’s Secretary of State over ballot language. 

Read more in The Washington Post.

 

PLANNED PARENTHOOD ADVOCATES OF VIRGINIA CALLS OUT GOV. YOUNGKIN’S PROPOSED BUDGET: This week, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin released his biennial budget proposal, once again including language that would remove coverage for Virginians eligible for Medicaid to end pregnancies with severe fetal diagnoses. Virginia denies state funding to Medicaid-eligible pregnant people who seek an abortion except in cases of rape, incest, when their life is at risk, and in cases of incapacitating fetal diagnoses. If approved, this budget would strike fetal diagnoses from this list, interfering with Virginians with low incomes’ fundamental right to make decisions about their health and family. This is the second time Youngkin has proposed this cruel anti-abortion budget language. 

Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia responded to the news saying:

“Virginians clearly expressed their will last month by electing majorities who support reproductive rights throughout the Commonwealth. Shame on Governor Youngkin for ignoring the will of the people and proposing this cruel and discriminatory language to the budget yet again. People facing complex and tragic circumstances surrounding pregnancy, like a severe fetal diagnosis, deserve our compassion and support – not shame and funding restrictions that put necessary abortion care out of reach. We need look no farther than Brittany Watts in Ohio and Kate Cox in Texas in Texas to see how little anti-abortion politicians care about people experiencing medical complications in their pregnancies.”

Read PPAV’s full statement here.