Abortion supporters win in conservative, liberal states

WASHINGTON (AP) — Abortion rights supporters won in the four states where access was on the ballot Tuesday, as voters enshrined it into the state constitution in battleground Michigan as well as blue California and Vermont and dealt a defeat to an anti-abortion measure in deep-red Kentucky.

In all, it was a dramatic illustration of how the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June to eliminate the nationwide right to abortion has galvanized voters who support women's right to choose. The court's June decision has led to near-total bans in a dozen Republican-governed states.

The Kentucky result repudiated the state’s Republican-led Legislature, which has imposed a near-total ban on abortion and put the proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot. The outcome echoed what happened in another red state, Kansas, where voters in August rejected changing that state’s constitution to let lawmakers tighten restrictions or ban abortions.

“As we saw in Kansas earlier this year, and in many other states last night, this is not a partisan issue," said Nancy Northup, president the Center for Reproductive Rights, in a statement. "People are energized and they do not want politicians controlling their bodies and futures.”

Nationally, about two-thirds of voters say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of over 90,000 voters across the country. Only about 1 in 10 say abortion should be illegal in all cases.

About 6 in 10 also say the Supreme Court’s abortion decision made them dissatisfied or angry, compared with fewer who say they were happy or satisfied.

Early returns in Kentucky showed thousands of voters who cast their ballots for Republican Sen. Rand Paul split with the GOP on the abortion ballot measure.

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