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By CHRISTINE FERNANDO
CHICAGO (AP) — Billboards with the words “STOP pediatric gender surgery.” Pamphlets warning about endangering minors. “PROTECT PARENTAL RIGHTS” on church bulletins.
If voters in nine states decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions, opponents use parental rights and anti-transgender messages to try undermine support for the voting proposals.
The measures make no mention of gender-affirming surgeries, and legal experts say changing existing parental notification and consent laws regarding abortions and gender-affirming care for minors would require legal action. But anti-abortion groups seeking to end their losing streak at the ballot box have turned to the ballot box kind of language many Republican candidates across the country are using them in their own campaigns as they try to mobilize conservative Christian voters.
“It’s really bizarre to suggest that this amendment addresses things like gender reassignment surgery for minors,” said Matt Harris, an associate professor of political science at Park University in Parkville, Missouri, a state where abortion rights are on the ballot.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down constitutional protections for abortion, voters in seven states, including conservatives, have voted Kentucky, Montana And Ohiohave either protected abortion rights or thwarted attempts to restrict them.
“If you can’t win by telling the truth, you need a better argument, even if that means capitalizing on the demonization of trans kids,” said Dr. Alex Dworak, a family physician in Omaha. Nebraskawhere anti-abortion groups use the strategy.
Linking ballot initiatives for abortion rights to parental rights and gender affirmation is one strategy borrowed from scripts used at Michigan And Ohiowhere voters nevertheless enshrined abortion rights in state constitutions.
Both states still require minors to obtain parental consent for abortions, and the new changes have not affected parental involvement or gender-affirming health care laws in either state, said David Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University.
“It’s just recycling the the same strategies” said Cohen.
In addition to Missouri and Nebraska, the states where voters are considering constitutional amendments this fall are Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota.
Missouri’s abortion ballot measure has mainly become a target. The amendment would prevent the government from infringing on “a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom.”
Gov. Mike Parson and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, both Republicans, have argued that the proposal would allow minors to have abortions and gender confirmation surgeries without parental involvement.
The amendment protects reproductive health services, “including but not limited to” a list of items such as prenatal care, childbirth, contraception and abortion. There is no mention of gender-affirming care, but Missouri state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican and attorney with the conservative Thomas More Society, said it’s possible it could be considered reproductive health care.
Several legal experts told The Associated Press that this would require a court ruling that is unlikely.
“It would be a stretch for a court to say that anything related to gender-affirming care counts as reproductive health care,” said Marcia McCormick, a professor of law and gender studies at Saint Louis University. She noted that the examples cited in the Missouri amendment as reproductive health care are all directly related to pregnancy.
As for parental consent for abortions of minors, she pointed to an existing state law that is written similarly to the law the U.S. Supreme Court found constitutional even before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Most states have parental involvement laws that require parental consent or notification. Even many Democratic-leaning states with explicit transgender rights protections require parental involvement before abortion or gender-affirming care for minors, said Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law.
A Supreme Court would have to strike down such laws, which is highly unlikely given the conservative majorities in many of the states where abortion is on the ballot, experts say.
In New York, a proposed amendment to the state constitution would do just that expand protection against discrimination to include ethnicity, national origin, age, disability and “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and reproductive health care and autonomy.” The constitution already prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed or religion.
The measure makes no mention of abortion. But because it is wider, it can be easier for opponents to attack it. But legal experts noted that it also would not change existing state laws regarding parental involvement in minor abortions or gender-affirming care.
The New York City Bar Association published a fact sheet explaining that the measure would not affect parental rights, “which are governed by other developed areas of state and federal law.” Yet the Coalition to Protect Kids-NY calls this the “Parent Replacement Act.”
Rick Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health, the group behind it South Dakota The company’s proposed amendment said it uses the Roe v. Wade framework “almost word for word.”
“All you have to do is look back at what was allowed under Roe, and there were always requirements for parental involvement,” Weiland said.
Caroline Woods, spokesperson for the anti-abortion group Life Defense Fund, said the measure “means that loving parents will be completely left out of the equation.” Weiland said these claims are part of a “constant stream of misinformation” from opponents.
If this campaign strategy failed in Michigan and OhioWhy are anti-abortion groups leaning on it for the November elections?
Ziegler, the Davis law professor at the University of California, said opponents of abortion rights know they may be “playing on more favorable ground” in more conservative states such as Missouri or in states like Florida that have higher thresholds for passing ballot measures.
“Anti-abortion groups are still looking for a winning recipe,” Ziegler said.
Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
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Originally published: October 31, 2024 at 2:40 PM EDT