On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court released its opinion in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 19-1392. It says that the U.S. Constitution has no applicability to any ban on abortion whatsoever. The decision leaves state legislatures the power to outlaw all abortions, even from the point of conception. If a legislature provides no exceptions whatsoever, even concerning the life or health of the pregnant woman, the Constitution has nothing to say about that.
Public opinion polls recently have shown substantial support for allowing early abortion, yet many state legislatures are, or have recently, shown that they want to ban even the earliest abortions. Therefore, it is somewhat likely that there will soon be many initiative petitions to repeal state legislative restrictions on certain abortions. But, the statewide initiative only exists in 22 states: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Some might list Illinois, but realistically, Illinois does not have the statewide initiative process.
Democratic Party legislators are almost entirely pro-choice. Democratic state legislators also tend to be opposed to the initiative process. But as the initiative process becomes an important arena for pro-choice activism, this may lead more Democratic politicians to support the initiative process. States without the statewide initiative process, but which have Democratic majorities in both houses of the legislature, are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois realistically, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Perhaps a movement to create a national initiative process will arise.
