North and South Dakota voters weigh safeguards against abortion amendments in upcoming election
The proposals would require 60% voter approval for constitutional amendments on any subject. Pro-life organizations are urging voters to support both measures, which they argue would raise a barrier to future efforts to enshrine abortion in the states’ constitutions.
Voters in North Dakota and South Dakota will decide Nov. 3 whether to raise the approval threshold for constitutional amendments, a change pro-life organizations say would help protect unborn children by making pro-abortion amendments harder to pass.
North Dakota’s Measure 1 and South Dakota’s Amendment L would require approval from at least 60% of voters, instead of a simple majority, to amend their state constitutions. State lawmakers have referred both proposals to voters, and neither is limited to abortion.
North Dakota Right to Life endorsed Measure 1 in an October statement, calling it the “abortion ballot measure before the abortion ballot measure.”
“We have watched the abortion lobby use well-funded ballot campaigns to place abortion rights into state constitutions across the country,” Bridget Turbide, executive director of North Dakota Right to Life, said in the statement. “Voting YES on Measure 1 will significantly reduce the likelihood that the same strategy succeeds in North Dakota.”
Dale Bartscher of South Dakota Right to Life joined Republican state Rep. John Hughes and Nathan Sanderson of South Dakota Retailers in supporting Amendment L in the state’s official voter pamphlet.
“A simple majority works well for ordinary laws, but a higher threshold is needed for changing our Constitution,” the supporters wrote.
North Dakota Right to Life highlighted Florida and Ohio as examples of how approval thresholds can determine the fate of abortion amendments.
Florida’s proposed pro-abortion amendment received about 57% support in November 2024 but failed to meet the state’s 60% requirement. Its defeat preserved Florida’s law protecting unborn children from abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
Ohio voters, by contrast, rejected a proposed 60% threshold in August 2023, leaving in place a simple majority requirement. Three months later, an amendment establishing abortion as a constitutional “right” passed with 56.78% support — less than the proposed threshold would have required. In November 2024, voters in Missouri and Montana also passed pro-abortion amendments with less than 60% support: 51.6% and 57.8%, respectively.
North Dakota Right to Life argued in an October Facebook post that the “difference between 50% and 60% could determine whether abortion is written into our state Constitution.”
Both states hold their general elections Nov. 3. South Dakota began in-person absentee voting Sept. 18, and North Dakota’s early voting schedules vary by county.
Comments