At least three red states could make it harder for voters to keep abortion legal
Lawmakers in some conservative-leaning states — like Florida, Missouri and Ohio — have already filed bills during the nascent state legislative season that would increase the threshold for amending state constitutions, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which helps with liberal ballot measures.......
In Ohio, state Rep. Brian Stewart (R) has again introduced a bill to require a vote of 60 percent to pass constitutional amendments. In mid-December, a state House committee cleared the measure, but it ultimately didn’t advance to the governor’s desk at the end of the lame-duck session....
Missouri: Some bills introduced this year would raise the threshold for collecting the necessary signatures to put an amendment on the ballot, while others would require roughly two-thirds approval of voters to change the constitution instead of a simple majority.
Florida: An amendment to the constitution already must garner 60 percent support at the ballot box to pass as of 2006, and a bill introduced this month would raise that threshold to two-thirds.
In both states, abortion rights activists have been exploring whether to launch campaigns to try to put an amendment protecting the procedure to voters. Missouri state Rep. Bill Falkner (R) wrote in an email that he’s filed the same bill to raise the bar for signature collections for the last three years, and that a potential abortion rights ballot measure didn’t play a role in the decision to introduce a measure again this year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/02/least-three-red-states-could-make-it-harder-voters-keep-abortion-legal/
= new reply since forum marked as read
