Abortion rights ballot measures win in Nevada, Virginia and Missouri

Abortion access supporters secured major victories across several states in the midterm elections, as voters approved constitutional protections and turned back efforts to roll back existing reproductive healthcare rights.

In Nevada, electors voted in favor of Question 6, adopting a constitutional amendment that establishes a fundamental right to abortion. The measure secures access through the second trimester and permits state oversight after fetal viability, while maintaining exemptions when necessary to safeguard a patient's life or physical health. The Associated Press called the contest when the proposal led by 62.3% to 37.7% with 86% of ballots tallied, completing the second referendum required to amend the state constitution.

A similar constitutional amendment succeeded in Virginia, where voters instituted a fundamental right to reproductive freedom. The newly approved language shields abortion access across the initial two trimesters of pregnancy while allowing third-trimester regulations, provided care remains legal to protect a patient's life or health. The provision additionally guarantees rights to fertility treatments and contraception.

Voters in Missouri defeated Amendment 3, an initiative sponsored by the Republican-controlled legislature designed to undo the reproductive freedom protections citizens had approved in 2024. The rejected proposal would have prohibited abortion except during the first 12 weeks in cases of rape and incest, or later for fetal anomalies, while also barring gender transition surgeries and certain medical procedures for minors. The measure failed by a margin of 55% to 45%, leaving the state's 2024 constitutional protections intact.

Voters in Idaho delivered a different outcome, declining to repeal the state's existing abortion prohibition. That decision keeps in place statutory restrictions enacted in 2022 following the US Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Across the country, the topic remained central in legislative and congressional campaigns. Democratic Senate candidates who focused heavily on reproductive rights claimed victories, including Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Chris Pappas in New Hampshire, and incumbent Jon Ossoff in Georgia, who each campaigned against their Republican rivals' records on abortion restrictions.

According to data compiled by Ballotpedia, 65 abortion-related ballot measures were decided nationwide between 1970 and 2025, with anti-abortion groups backing 44 and pro-choice organizations supporting 21. Following the Supreme Court's 2022 decision returning regulatory authority to individual states, electors in more than one-fifth of states have enacted ballot measures protecting reproductive rights.