Louisiana passes amendment stating abortion is not a right

Louisiana voters passed an amendment Tuesday stating that the state constitution does not protect the right to an abortion or the funding of an abortion.

With nearly 1.8 million votes tallied, about 65.5 percent of voters passed the amendment, while 35.5 percent of voters rejected it.

Tennessee, West Virginia and Alabama have adopted similar ballot initiatives in recent years as conservatives push the Supreme Court to roll back Roe v. Wade, the decision that first legalized the procedure.

Amendment 1 is supported by Gov. John Bel Edwards, the only Democratic governor in the U.S. who opposes abortion rights.

Louisiana already has what’s known as a trigger law, which would automatically ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned. The amendment passed Tuesday essentially makes it more difficult for people to challenge the trigger law. 

Louisiana has sought to implement other laws to restrict abortion access, though those efforts have been rebuffed by the Supreme Court, which most recently invalidated a law that required physicians who perform abortions to hold “active admitting privileges” at a hospital within 30 miles of their facility.

Meanwhile, Colorado voters shot down a proposition that would restrict abortion after a fetus reaches 22 weeks gestational age, which is calculated from the first day of a woman’s last menstrual period.