In conjunction with the election, several American states held referenda on the topic of abortion. Unsurprisingly all the initiatives were anti-choice.
Colorado voters rejected constitutional protections to any human being from the moment of conception. by a 3-to-1 margin. Opposed by 7,000 doctors and community groups this initiative, if passed, could have restricted access to some forms of contraception in vitro fertilization, termination of life-threatening ectopic pregnancies and other health care for women.
Californians narrowly defeated mandatory waiting period and parental notification laws before a minor could terminate her pregnancy. Apparently 34 states have a form of parental involvement in a minor's abortion. 22 states require parental consent, 10 states require solely parental notification, and the others require both notification and consent.
And in South Dakota, a ballot to criminalize abortion unless in cases of rape or incest or to save the life the mother was soundly defeated. The referendum itself was viewed by the anti-choice vehicle as to challenge US Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade.
7 comments:
On the other hand, three states banned gay marriage, one banned adoption by gay couples, and two states "ended Affirmative Action." While the abortion news is good and all...
Hopefully the ban of gay marriage in California will be overturned.
What a great election though, Obama is going to inspire so many people, I think America and the world is going to be a lot better off in four years time.
I will admit to being quite pleased at the margin by which the Colorado ballot was defeated (by about three to one.) And the others are also good news. But, as Tui said, it was pretty bad news for LGBTQ rights all round - and especially in California, where rights were actively removed from those who'd had them. There's still a way to go.
I think there is a very long way to go before gay marriage is something won at a popular vote. I don't think it would do so here in NZ and I am not surprised it didn't in liberal California.
@ Tui, if you look at the post above this that makes for some depressing reading but you are right I am disappointed at prop 8 being upheld in californa. Arrgh.
@glosoli, well, I actually disagree with you about gay marriage being winnable by popular vote here - my feeling around the civil union time that civil union was the only thing that would get through Parliament, and that had more to do with the opinions of individual MPs and the degree to which small, wealthy groups were successful at getting their message across than to do with the feelings and opinions of the majority of New Zealanders. (I think we have a specific advantage over the USA in that we, and our politics, are not dominated by religion in the same way they are.) You may nevertheless be correct, it's just not my feeling.
@ the ex-expat: one of the most interesting things I've noticed about US response to prop 8 passing is the tendency to blame minority groups, particularly black and pacific island voters. This is probably the only time I've ever heard mention of PI voters in US politics, but I find the language of "all these immigrants are so religious and therefore so conservative" both kind of frustrating and kind of ironic. (Also, it's been pointed out that in most states the gay marriage bans would have passed if every single person in the country was white - and McCain would have been elected, too.)
But whose fault is it, again, that pacific islanders are often Christian of the conservative flavour? Oh, right - white people's! We went into the Pacific specifically to convert them, and to use those conversions to extend our Empire. *Now* we don't like the way that changed PI lives and religious practices? Tough bikkies.
"I think there is a very long way to go before gay marriage is something won at a popular vote. I don't think it would do so here in NZ and I am not surprised it didn't in liberal California."
Perhaps a nitpick, but California voted to REPEAL gay marriage, not to establish it. I think that's actually much easier on the marriage equality activists, tbh.
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