The Canada Brief

Politics · 5 d ago

Idaho State Capitol, Boise

Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Abortion rights go to a vote in four US states on Tuesday's midterm ballot

Four states, four referendums

  • Idaho: restore abortion up to viability
  • Nevada: protect the right to abortion
  • Virginia: protect the right to abortion
  • Missouri: could remove the protection

Idaho, Nevada and Virginia vote on protecting the right to abortion, while Missouri could remove that protection from its constitution.

Idaho

Idaho bans abortion at every stage, with a rare exception to save the mother's life but not her health. The Idaho initiative would restore the right up to fetal viability, generally 22 to 24 weeks.

What we know

  • More than a third of obstetrician-gynecologists have left
  • Some patients were flown to other states

Not yet

  • Whether voters restore the right in Idaho

More than a third of Idaho's obstetrician-gynecologists have stopped practising, left the state or retired since the ban took effect, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

About 60 per cent of US adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the Pew Research Center, and Donald Trump has avoided the issue during the campaign.