When the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision ruled that the Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion,

some Americans were outraged, others were overjoyed. Elected Democrats, who historically have been more

vocal supporters of reproductive freedoms than Republicans, were alarmed, but also hopeful. Polls

show a majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal in at least certain cases, and Democratic

Party strategists thought this would give them a leg up in the recent election.

From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. We know, of course, that those hopes did not come to pass for the Democrats. Americans put Donald Trump back in the White House and Republicans

also gain seats in the House and Senate. But here's the thing. Of the 10 states that also put abortion on the ballot,

voters in seven of them chose to protect abortion rights, including three states, Arizona,

Montana, and Missouri that gave their electoral votes to Donald Trump. So what happened? And what

does this mean for the future of abortion access and abortion politics? Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine, where you can find her article, America's split screen on abortion. Emily, welcome back to think.

Thanks so much for having me. Your sense is that abortion rights, the abortion rights movement hit a ceiling on election day this year.

How so? Well, on the one hand, you see a bunch of states passing measures that protected abortion

rights. And this is following on similar ballot initiatives passing in 2022 and 2023 after the

Supreme Court reversed Roe versus Wade. And then at the same time,

for the first time, a few of these ballot measures failed. And of course, Donald Trump is elected

president, even though he is taking pride in reversing Roe and his opponent Kamala Harris is a

strong defender of abortion rights. So in the

presidential race, especially voters sent the signal that, you know, abortion matters a great deal to

some of them, but it wasn't enough to determine the result of the presidential race in a way

that was going to elect a Democrat.

Yeah, it is so interesting that on both sides of this issue, the fact that Kamala Harris did not win feels like a big deal. To what extent had she leaned into the abortion issue hoping it might

carry her over the top? Well, she leaned in hard. And, you know, people who want to protect

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