With a newly expanded conservative majority on the Supreme Court, state-level fights over abortion have taken on even more significance: They’re a preview of what might happen if the justices grant more latitude to states to determine abortion restrictions. On Tuesday, by a margin of more than half a million votes, Colorado voters firmly rejected a proposition that would have limited abortion more than 22 weeks into a pregnancy.
This decision has significant practical consequences: Colorado is one of only seven states that permits abortion at any point in pregnancy, and women in their second or third trimester consistently travel there for the procedure when they can’t find a provider in their home state.
The political implications are also important. In a blue state with a strong history of conservative activism, voters were not willing to embrace an abortion limit that’s on the books in almost every other state, and is largely in line with public opinion on appropriate abortion restrictions. Colorado’s decision on Proposition 115 is the first vote in America’s new era of abortion politics, in which it is more likely than ever that the Supreme Court will reimagine the constitutional right to abortion. As terminating a pregnancy legally becomes more difficult in America, abortion-rights supporters in blue states may be unwilling to tolerate any efforts to restrict the procedure, knowing that women’s options are shrinking.
.jpg.webp)
