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Tuesday’s results likely ensure that millions of people will be able to legally terminate a pregnancy going forward — and bolster progressives’ arguments that reproductive rights is a winning issue that Democrats and their allies should pursue aggressively in the years ahead. “There are lessons here for 2024 that I hope the administration will take to heart,” said Morgan Hopkins, the leader of All* Above All, an abortion-rights advocacy group. “We showed up, especially young voters of color, in record numbers. Now, we need these elected officials to show up for us.” (Ollstein and Messerly, 11/9)

In many places, the outcome of down-ballot races may prove as consequential for abortion access as those for governor or legislative seats. Shifts in power on state supreme courts are important to watch, as these courts can rule on challenges to new or existing abortion laws. Newly elected attorneys general will also have some say in their enforcement. (McCann, Walker, Murphy and Cahalan, 11/9)

In June, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and the court’s ultra-conservative majority wrote that they were sending the issue of abortion back to the voters. The voters are displeased. (Thomson-DeVeaux, 11/9)

KHN: Abortion Issue Helps Limit Democrats’ Losses In Midterms

Republicans are likely to take control of one or both houses of Congress when all the votes are counted, but Democrats on Wednesday were celebrating after their party defied expectations of substantial losses in the midterm election. The backlash over the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn 49 years of abortion rights was apparently a big reason. Inflation and the economy proved the most important voting issue, cited as the motivation of 51% of voters in exit polls conducted by the Associated Press and analyzed by KFF pollsters. But abortion was the single-most important issue for a quarter of all voters, and for a third of women under age 50. Exit polls by NBC News placed the importance of abortion even higher, with 32% of voters saying inflation was their top voting issue and abortion ranking second at 27%. (Rovner, 11/9)

In election results as of 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act constitutional referendum was failing by a nearly 18,000-vote margin. Polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday night and by Wednesday afternoon was at 57%, according to the Secretary of State's Office. About 75% of the vote statewide had been counted. (Michels, 11/9)

Kentucky voters rejected a ballot measure aimed at denying any constitutional protections for abortion, handing a victory to abortion-rights supporters who have seen access to the procedure eroded by Republican lawmakers in the deeply red state. The outcome of the election that concluded Tuesday highlighted what appeared to be a gap between voter sentiment and the expectations of Kentucky’s GOP-dominated legislature, which imposed a near-total ban on abortions and put the proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. (Schreiner and Campbell, 11/9)

Nationally, abortion helped Democrats hold off the threatened “red wave,” and in states where reproductive rights were on the ballot, voters turned out and even crossed party lines to support increased access. But not in Texas. (Klibanoff, 11/9)

It was a mixed night for cannabis advocates as measures to legalize adult-use recreational marijuana passed in Maryland and Missouri but were soundly rejected in reliably red Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota. (Westervelt, 11/9)