While several states have made significant strides in protecting abortion access through citizen-led ballot measures, advocates in states with the strictest abortion laws are struggling to make their voices heard due to a lack of legal pathways for such initiatives. These challenges highlight the growing divide in a post-Roe landscape, where some states have expanded reproductive rights, while others continue to impose harsh restrictions on access to abortion.
In 2024, several states saw citizens successfully push for abortion rights measures, with Missouri making history by passing a citizen-led ballot initiative expected to overturn its near-total abortion ban. However, these victories are not possible in all states. About half of U.S. states do not allow citizens to propose statewide ballot measures, with many of these states also having some of the most restrictive abortion laws, including Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas.
“It essentially leaves us powerless when we’re talking about adding initiatives that people actually care about on the ballot,” says Chasity Wilson, executive director of the Louisiana Abortion Fund. The absence of a ballot initiative process in these states severely limits reproductive-rights advocates’ ability to directly address voter concerns about abortion access.
Since the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, activists have turned to citizen-led initiatives as a way to secure abortion rights at the state level. Public opinion polls consistently show that the majority of Americans support legal abortion in most or all cases. When abortion measures have appeared on the ballot, they have often passed.
Despite this, advocates in restrictive states find themselves trapped by state laws that prevent citizen-led initiatives. In Louisiana, for example, a proposal for a reproductive-rights measure was blocked in March by the state’s House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure, despite evidence of growing public support for abortion rights. A poll commissioned by Lift Louisiana found that 42% of likely voters in the state strongly support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion.
In the absence of ballot measures, local organizations are stepping in to support those in need of abortion care. The Louisiana Abortion Fund helps cover travel costs for residents seeking abortion care in other states, while Lift Louisiana and other groups provide legal advocacy and educational resources. In Alabama, where similar restrictions apply, organizations like the Yellowhammer Fund are focused on minimizing harm by distributing emergency contraceptives and other reproductive health resources.
While reproductive-rights advocates in Texas, such as Raven E. Freeborn of Avow, acknowledge the difficulty of pushing for a citizen-led initiative, they remain hopeful that other strategies, including legal battles and public education campaigns, can still protect abortion access in the state.
As advocates continue to fight for abortion rights in states where citizen-led initiatives are not an option, they emphasize the importance of community mobilization. “Community is our only way to survive,” says Jennifer Babaie, director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. With the odds stacked against them, reproductive-rights groups are committed to fighting for change in creative and strategic ways, despite the legal barriers they face.
