What Tuesday’s election could mean for abortion in 2024
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2023
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
How tomorrow’s elections could show the political power behind abortion rights.
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On Tuesday, voters across the country will head to the polls for Election Day. And while the elections – and the issues on the ballots – cover a lot of ground, there’s one big theme running through the elections: abortion.
In a state such as Ohio, abortion is explicitly on the ballot. Ohio voters will determine abortion access on a ballot measure called “Issue One.” If it passes, the measure would guarantee abortion access up to the point of fetal viability.
But for other states, such as Virginia and Kentucky, the topic of abortion rights is the undercurrent of their elections.
The Post’s campaign reporter Hannah Knowles explains how Tuesday’s elections are being animated by abortion-related races, and whether the results of the elections can be used as a litmus test for the coming fight over abortion in the 2024 presidential race.
Correction: A previous version of this episode description misstated what election is taking place in Virginia. The description has been updated to remove the error.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On Tuesday, voters around the country will be heading to the polls for election day. |
| 0:07.6 | The elections and the issues on the ballots cover a lot of ground, but Hannah Knowles is noticing one big theme. One through line that |
| 0:15.8 | we'll be looking at in all of these elections will be the issue of abortion. |
| 0:33.2 | Hannah is a campaign report. abortion. This ballot measure in Ohio called issue one. People will be voting on a measure |
| 0:34.9 | to actually amend their state constitution |
| 0:38.1 | to guarantee abortion access up to the point |
| 0:40.8 | of fetal viability, so that's similar to what we had under Roe v. Wade. |
| 0:45.8 | But here's why it's notable that this is happening in Ohio. |
| 0:49.4 | Their state government is led completely by Republicans. |
| 0:53.2 | They have a Republican governor, |
| 0:54.9 | and Republicans control both the Ohio House and the Senate. |
| 0:59.1 | And Ohio went to Trump in the past two presidential elections. |
| 1:03.0 | Can you believe we're probably going to have Trump and Biden again? |
| 1:06.0 | Yeah, I know, and this time I would vote for Trump. |
| 1:08.0 | Okay, really, interesting. |
| 1:10.0 | But for people like Lisa Howard, who Hannah spoke with in the lead up to this election |
| 1:14.8 | That doesn't necessarily mean they want to limit abortion rights |
| 1:18.8 | How are you gonna vote on issue one? I'm going to vote for it because I don't want them to have control of the |
| 1:28.0 | government's have control of well women for families have the right to throw their own bodies and their |
| 1:35.0 | things situations. |
| 1:36.7 | I just believe that it should be a woman and her own, I mean she's one |
| 1:42.2 | that will have to live with it, you know, I mean I know people who just had to go and get one. |
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