WASHINGTON-A big turn on Efforts to rally voters on reproductive rights suffered their first major blow Tuesday night.

Florida rejected a ballot initiative that would reverse the state’s six-week abortion ban, preserving access to the procedure until the viability of the fetus. A fetus is viable for about the 24th week of pregnancy.

This is Roe v. While it is the first failed state effort to address abortion rights since the Wade case was overturned in 2022, Florida faces a unique hurdle: The state requires 60% of voters to approve changes to the state constitution, whereas many states require a simple majority. There are other states.

When most of the votes were counted, 57 percent of Floridians voted in favor of the election. measurementAccording to the AP, 43 percent of the public opposed it. Those numbers also align with abortion rights votes in other states: Last year, Ohioans enshrined abortion rights in the constitution with 57% of the vote.

“As the majority of Florida voters made clear tonight, they want their reproductive freedom back,” Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

Republican politicians have tried to distance themselves from Florida’s ban during this campaign. Most Americans We oppose the six-week abortion ban in the vote.

Trump previously dismissed the state’s ban as “a terrible mistakeOnly later this August did he say he would vote against the measure expanding access. on election day pushed back He demanded that reporters who asked how he voted for the measure “stop talking about it.”

Nine other states voted on abortion rights on Tuesday, and the results are still coming in. Maryland, New York, and Colorado, states that positioned themselves as safe havens for access following the overturn of Roe, have passed measures that further strengthen access.

Others vote for the constitutional right to abortion until the fetus is viable. Certifying those votes by voters in Missouri and Nebraska could reverse existing bans.