After string of abortion-rights wins, conservatives look to curtail the ballot measure process – By Adam Edelman (NBC News) / Dec 26, 2022
Progressive efforts to put abortion rights directly on the ballot would be curbed — if not eviscerated — if conservative legislatures make it harder to place ballot initiatives.
Republican-led legislatures are mounting an increasingly fierce battle to curb the ability of citizens and other lawmakers to place ballot measures — a move progressive groups say is explicitly aimed at making it difficult to give voters in red and purple states direct say over major issues such as abortion rights.
During legislative sessions in 2022, 109 bills were filed in state legislatures to alter the citizen-led ballot initiative process; 58 would explicitly have made the process more difficult, according to a review by the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which works with progressive organizations to help advance ballot measures. Republican legislators seeking to restrain the placement of such ballot initiatives — including ones that would amend state constitutions — have already pre-filed at least 11 such measures in at least three states ahead of 2023 legislative sessions that kick off in January and February, according to a review by NBC News.
Progressive groups — including organizations that advocate for reproductive rights, as well as the ballot initiative groups those organizations regularly work with — say the efforts are a direct response to the success of progressive ballot initiatives on issues like expanding Medicaid and raising the minimum wage.
