- The midterms proved that voters want to defend abortion access.
- "These results have been a moment of celebration," Elisabeth Smith said.
For abortion-rights campaigners, it has been an exhausting and soul-destroying few months.
Following the reversal of Roe v. Wade in June, the catalog of stories of women's health being in jeopardy due to an inability to access abortions and anxiety-inducing court hearings have provided months of chaos and devastation, Elisabeth Smith, the director for state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Insider.
But this week, those emotions have shifted fundamentally.
Midterm voters across the country largely supported abortion access, with people in California, Vermont, and Michigan overwhelmingly supporting ballot measures that would amend each state's constitutions with language to protect abortion rights.
This week's surprise midterm results have provided "a moment of celebration, a moment of jubilation, and a moment to take a breath," Smith told Insider during an upbeat phone call.
Smith was specifically watching the results from Michigan, where voters approved Proposal 3 — which enshrines abortion access into the state constitution — was approved by voters on Tuesday.
When the news came in, Smith told Insider that thoughts flooded her mind of the campaigners fighting for these results, for escorts helping people through swathes of anti-abortion protesters outside clinics, and the people who will now be able to access abortions for years to come.
Smith attempted to list the positives, but happily said that the results were "almost too big and too wonderful to comprehend."
In Michigan, stakes were high. Smith explained that the vote was either going to mean a 2022 law or a 1931 pre-Roe abortion ban would govern abortion rights in the state. Smith said that "was an outcome that was too difficult to bear."
That's why it's been so crucial for Smith and her team hit the campaign trail to knock on doors and look people in the eye when talking about these issues.
While knocking on doors in the brisk Michigan temperatures, she visited one house where the registered voter was an older woman. A young man, about 15, opened the door, explaining that his grandmother wouldn't be able to come to speak with her.
So this would be an uneventful visit, Smith thought, and gave the boy a leaflet before moving on. But after a few moments, she turned to see the boy running down the street with a huge smile on his face.
"'Oh, I went upstairs. I talked to my grandmother. She is voting 'yes' tomorrow on Prop 3,'" he told Smith. Smith told Insider that, like many others, while she eagerly awaited the midterm results, the young man popped into her head.
"I don't know if that young man and his grandmother had talked about abortion before or had talked about Prop 3. But in every state where abortion was on the ballot, conversations like that were happening across communities, across households, and across the state.
"Just that fact is a step forward. So, yes, the results are incredible. But those conversations and that sharing, that is the power that is being harnessed," Smith said.
A mission of mobilization
"Pathological optimist" Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL, said she knew that the support was there for abortion reform across the US, telling Insider that current data shows eight in 10 people support access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion.
But, she said, they face a challenge — getting that support to translate to votes.
Timmaraju told Insider that they'd shifted resources over the summer into getting out the vote. "We were hearing from our organizers on the ground, 'I don't know what the polls are saying, but as we knock on doors and make phone calls, the enthusiasm is there,' and that was born out in the early-vote numbers, in the voter-registration numbers."
Timmaraju laughed, recalling the moment of joy at the midterm election results, "I was being obnoxious and running around to the staff and saying, 'I told you, I told you!'"
—Mini Timmaraju (@mintimm) November 9, 2022
"But as excited, enthusiastic as I am about what happened," she said. "I think the moral of the story is young voters and women voters saved the day, saved Democrats."
Data from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, also known as CIRCLE, shows that 27% of young people — classified as those aged 18 to 29 — cast a ballot in the 2022 midterms, giving this election the second-highest youth turnout seen in the last three decades.
Adding to this, CIRCLE noted that exit-poll data showed young people are the only age group in which a substantial majority supported Democrats. Its data showed that 89% of Black youth and 68% of Latino youth voted for a Democratic House candidate, while 58% of white youth voted for Democrats and 40% for Republicans.
Indeed, the abortion issue was a driving force for many voters. While inflation issues topped voters' list of concerns at 32%, abortion rights ran a close second at 27%, according to an NBC News exit poll.
"If we can continue to invest and engage those voters this way, our future is bright, you know, a multiracial, multigenerational coalition is the future and how you fight for democracy and freedom because these are the folks who get it the most," Timmaraju told Insider.
The most important thing for many activists, Smith and Timmaraju said, was that the wins across the country —from California to Vermont — have proven that many people care about abortion.
"We've been releasing polls for a long time now that said eight in 10 Americans are with us," Timmaraju told Insider, adding, "I've had multiple Democrats in the last year say "is that an accurate number, I'm not sure about that," and the midterm results finally can act as a "proof point" that surveyed Americans support abortion access in the polls.
Amanda Matos, the senior director of constituency campaigns at Planned Parenthood Votes, described the results as "proof of what we've long said: We are the majority, and when abortion is on the ballot, reproductive freedom wins."
Melissa Fowler, the chief program officer of the National Abortion Federation, told Insider that, "Now the country has heard loud and clear that people support abortion access. I just wish anti-abortion politicians would get the message and stop ignoring the will of the people and passing harmful abortion bans.
Although these ballot wins are important, it's going to take more than one election to undo the harm done by the Dobbs decision."
After discussing the positive points, conversations with Smith and Timmaraju turned to the still-harsh reality of abortion in America.
"The reality is until there's a new federal right to abortion and reproductive autonomy, we will not be able to ensure access for everybody in this country," Smith said.
"There are 12 states that are currently criminalizing abortion, and great outcomes in other states aren't going to affect that status quo," she said.
"Women in my home state of Texas, for example, are still living under a complete abortion ban. We should be very, very optimistic and feel good, but then we have to get right back to work," Timmaraju said.