Why Direct Democracy Is Proving So Powerful for Protecting Abortion Rights

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

60% : Just as Irish voters recoiled at the real-world effects of the Eighth Amendment, accounts of people denied emergency care when they have incomplete miscarriages, like Halappanavar, have already shaken many Americans.
55% : At the risk of oversimplifying the comparison, in certain respects our post-Roe country already resembles Ireland under the Eighth Amendment.
50% : But abortion support at the polls in places like Kentucky and Michigan show the ability of pro-choice advocates to take abortion questions away from state legislators.
49% : Even voters in Arizona and Florida might be persuaded to enshrine some kind of abortion right in state constitutions.
48% : The campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment relied on personal stories about real people and stressed that "you don't necessarily need to be pro-abortion to be pro-choice."
46% : If the results of ballot measures tell us anything, it is that those who campaigned to repeal the Eighth Amendment were on to something: They made abortion a stand-alone issue, not a part of party politics, and in doing so, tapped surprising sources of support.
45% : Lessons on how and why can be gleaned from an effort that took place an ocean away: Ireland's 2018 campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment, which had, since 1983, recognized fetal rights and thus banned abortion.
43% : The fact is that disentangling questions about abortion from political affiliation may provide one of the best ways to protect or to restore abortion access in red and purple states, at least in the short run.
43% : In Kansas, abortion-rights supporters tailored their messages to reach voters with a range of views, including those who were deeply religious or politically conservative and opposed to abortion on principle.
42% : In many states, the law doesn't reflect attitudes about abortion, which polls show are far more forgiving.
42% : Ballot initiatives can separate what Americans think about abortion from which party they might otherwise prefer.
40% : Colorado and Ohio, where abortion remains at least partly legal (Ohio has a ban after six weeks) and where the majority of people say they support abortion rights, could pursue ballot measures that entrench a commitment to protect, rather than restrict, abortion access.

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