Molly Knight: Honest question: who is in charge of making sure abortion access is on the ballot in every single state? Who is running point on this?

Honest question: who is in charge of making sure abortion access is on the ballot in every single state? Who is running point on this?

Organizers got enough signatures to put a measure protecting abortion on the ballot in Arkansas. In *Arkansas*. They had *no national support*. Ignore the pundits melting down over not being treated as Very Special Boys. Dobbs has fundamentally changed elections. Everything they know is wrong.

Arkansas abortion rights groups collect enough signatures to advance ballot measurewww.nbcnews.com A measure to enshrine abortion rights in the ruby red state’s constitution is now one step closer to making the November ballot — but major obstacles remain.

I'm not an expert on state politics and national campaigns, so I could be horribly wrong about that, but I would guess nobody--because that is a massive undertaking with a bazillion moving parts and nuances (not to mention turf issues)

I guess I just assumed someone was on it. Ugh

Like I said, I could be very very wrong. Someone may well be. That's just a guess from minimal knowledge.

In Kentucky, they brought in the organizers from Kansas to help lead and provide guidance for the amendment rejection effort here. ACLU has been emboldened this election to work for abortion protections.

Only half the states allow ballot initiatives or referendums to start with, & there’s many variations among those. In some states, the battle is in the statehouse over new or zombie abortion laws. Dobbs was written specifically to make a national strategy very difficult!

lots and lots of people are "on it" this is such a bizarre thing to whine about. you're just telling everyone that YOU'RE not on it. your local clinic all full up on volunteers? no progressive candidates need door-knockers? what are YOU doing besides whining that other people aren't doing enough?

If anyone knows, it'll be @taniel.bsky.social.

In Texas, the state legislature overturned the law that would allow a statewide referendum. On anything. We can’t recall corrupt politicians (see Paxton, Ken). We’d have to rely on our equally corrupt (again see Paxton, Ken) legislature to pass a constitutional amendment allowing referenda

Missouri did it with no national support, so the people living in the state, I guess.

honest answer from a red state is we know our own people the best and the only national coordination we need is cash but nobody wants to just do that

Unfortunately it can not be done in Iowa unless approved by State legislature, or something like that. A petition just can not get it on the ballot.

This is true in North Carolina as well. Only the state legislature can initiate ballot measures, and they’re not going to do that here.

Thanks. I've been wondering if it were possible in Iowa.

This kind of stuff isn't usually top down, but when a group does tackle something like this, they usually put someone who knows only about half of the states have ballot access in charge

The state laws vary a lot so different parts of coalitions take different pieces of it and national orgs and the party don’t like imposing their brands on state based measures anyway, which tend to do better than e.g. candidates. KFF has a good rundown: www.kff.org/womens-healt...

Ballot Tracker: Status of Abortion-Related State Constitutional Amendment Measures | KFFwww.kff.org This tracker shows which states abortion-related constitutional amendment measures are confirmed or under consideration for the 2024 election.

That's been VP Harris' axe basically all year. This is just a recent one: abcnews.go.com/Health/wireS...

'Everything is at stake' for reproductive rights in 2024, Harris saysabcnews.go.com Vice President Kamala Harris says “everything is at stake” with reproductive health rights in November's presidential election

There's a lot of coordination between the national abortion advocacy groups & state organizations. Unfortunately, though, 24 states do not have ballot initiative or referendum procedures that would allow their citizens to put this or any other issue up for a vote.

I mean theoretically the Democrats but they don't seem interested in doing anything but changing every position they've ever held to try to minimize bad-faith Republican accusations. Just 100% defense against an opponent ignoring both the rules and reality. So… functionally nobody.

I dunno man, we pulled it off in my red state! Handily!

When you despair about middle America just remember if you put Weed and Abortion on the ballot people say "hell yeah" to both. We sure did here!

I mean, there's nothing to do in middle America but get high and have sex, so of course they vote yes on both weeds and abortion. --Signed a Hoosier.

YOU pulled it off. And people in Red States have been, it's fantastic. But the DNC or DCCC or whatever, should be dropping millions into all states running this issue. It's a winning issue and will have coattails.

They just raise money off of it. Wish I was just making that up. 🤷‍♂️🫠

Some states, like Iowa, don’t have a way for voters to put referendums on the ballot. I believe that’s the case for Indiana as well.

Yes. Fewer than half the states have voter referendums. Of the 21 states that do have initiatives, only 11 of them directly lead to the initiative being passed if approved by voters. In the rest it goes to legislature for vote and they can modify or deny it if they choose.

Yes, this is also correct for Indiana. We are a red state, but also have basically zero opportunity to become LESS red in terms of policy. Ballot questions only make it onto ballots is if two successive state legislatures both approve the question. And we have GOP supermajorities in both houses.

My state doesn't have any avenue for a citizen led ballot initiative. The vast majority of the Midwest and the South and Northeast don't have any way for citizens to create legislation except "maybe elect someone different next time and hope they do it" (spoiler: they probably won't)

I really wish the national campaign were hammering on this.

Reproductive Freedom for All...formerly NARAL.

Indiana pulled something to prevent it from being on the ballot.

Sadly IN doesn't have ballot initiatives.

Lol gently suggested to the super hostile person in the replies to this that maybe they should go do something besides being super mean for no reason and they suggested something anatomically impossible? Anyways, blocking and moving on but sheesh, what a world. 🤷🏾‍♂️

I'll say it more directly. Where the Hell are the Democrats? I keep reading about rural groups in red states struggling to get some attention.

States have different rules. In Wisconsin citizens can't put questions like this on the ballot. Any state constitutional changes have to come from the assembly, then the citizens vote on them. Our assembly is gerrymandered very red.

nobody. because the leader of the democratic party is a decrepit anti-abortion catholic

Any reason the ACLU would not organize such a thing?

Many of the initiatives are getting at least some funding from ACLU (either local or national). Planned Parenthood, Reproductive Freedom for All (the former NARAL), former state affiliates of NARAL, and Think Big America are also among the funders/organizers of the various initiatives.

It's a great question, and the national groups with 100m to spend should be funding it because they have the resources, but it seems they want to repeat the mistakes of the past 40 years and neglect the states.

Ballot initiatives have different processes in every state. Generally, it's a matter of gathering a certain threshold of signatures and submitting it to the State, whereupon it must be put to a popular vote.

I thought NARAL was national but they only list 5 states on their site for action with only 5 chapters?

That's the organization I thought of, too, but also realized I haven't heard anything about them in recent years - so what are they doing? They have changed the name to Reproductive Freedom for All, but if they're doing anything it seems to be on the down low.

NARAL national disaffiliated from most of its state branches. These state branches changed their names and so did national. The national org is now called Reproductive Freedom for All. The national organization is now more closely in charge of the 5 local branches still included.

I have some context on this if you’re still curious and are willing to DM me.

Most underrated Guv in America, JB Pritzker

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