How abortion rights swayed results in the midterm election

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• Judy Woodruff:

  So, this week's election was the first since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion six months ago.

  Since then, 12 states have put in place total bans on the procedure. There are other states that have enacted restrictions. That was top of mind for many voters in this election. And in some states, access to abortion was literally on the ballot.

  For more on those results and what they mean, I am joined by our Laura Barrón-López.

  And, Laura, I know you have been following this issue for many months now.

  So let's talk first about the states that had this as a ballot measure. It was there for people to vote on directly, where you saw, you said, people making a clear statement. Tell us about that.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  There were.

  So there were five states where voters had abortion on the ballot. Those five states were Kentucky, Michigan, California, Vermont, and Montana. And across all five of them, voters ultimately supported protecting abortion access, rather than restricting it.

  In three of those, California, Michigan and Vermont, that enshrined abortion rights in those state constitutions. The two outliers there were Kentucky and Montana. In Kentucky, voters defeated a measure that would have put in the state constitution no protection for abortion rights. In Montana, the measure there didn't directly say abortion, apply to abortion. It has to do with babies — quote — "being born alive," and it would have made them a legal person.

  And doctors were not in favor of this because of the fact that they felt as though it would hurt the care for premature babies who ultimately may not survive. And we — that measure was ultimately defeated. We — that race was called today. That ballot measure was called today by the AP.

  And that came to 52.5 percent voting no, defeating that measure, 47.5 percent voting yes.

• Judy Woodruff:

  So let's talk about a number of the governor's races where abortion access on the ballot, clear contrast between candidates. What did we learn from those?

• Laura Barrón-López:

  So I was really tracking three states here.

  Democratic candidates in a lot of states really focused on abortion access and made it their rallying cry for voters against Republican candidates. The three states that I wanted to talk about were Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

  Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan was reelected, made this a key issue in her race. And then Tony Evers in Wisconsin was reelected. And he, again, also was very focused on abortion, particularly with the prospect of GOP — with a very strong GOP state legislature there.

  And then Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, a new governor elect there in Pennsylvania, and he very much was focused on reproductive rights. He opposed his Republican opponent, which was — who is actually very much in favor of really severe restriction on abortion access there.

• Judy Woodruff:

  So, if you step back, Laura, and you look at the issue, the races across the country, how big a factor was abortion in how these races turned out?

• Laura Barrón-López:

  It ultimately appears to have been a really major factor.

  And that's what I was hearing when I was on the ground in Michigan from female voters there, as well as from some Pennsylvania voters that I was talking to. And we have a data point that really hits — hammers this — hammers this, which is that AP — the AP survey of voters found that 24 percent of voters cited abortion as their top issue.

  And of those, 70 percent voted for the Democratic candidate, 27 percent for the Republican candidate, so a big difference there in ultimately people supporting abortion access favoring Democrats.

  I spoke to Cornell Belcher, a veteran Democratic pollster today, who said that Democrats needed a dynamic event if they were going to defy history in a midterm election, and that, ultimately, the Supreme Court's decision abortion gave them that dynamic event. It helped Democrats counter inflation, because a lot of voters who cited inflation as their top concern, they ended up breaking for Republicans.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And, finally, quickly, we know President Biden made abortion rights a central part of his arguments in these election.

  What is the White House looking at what it can do in coming months and the next few years on that?

• Laura Barrón-López:

  So I asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about this today. I asked her if they were going to still send a bill to Congress come January that would codify Roe v. Wade.

  And this is what she said.

• Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary:

  We just have to see what the complexion of Congress is going to look like. And then we will move forward from there.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Is there anything else that the president thinks he can do? If there is only one seat in the Senate, codifying Roe would be difficult.

• Karine Jean-Pierre:

  He's going to do everything that he can. Let's not forget, people have said he wasn't going to get the bipartisan infrastructure legislation done. He got it done. People didn't think he was going to get the CHIPS and Science Act done. We got it done.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  And I was asking there, pointing out that, at best, Democrats may have a one-seat majority in the Senate.

  And, ultimately, Biden had really sent this final message to voters that, if they gave him two more Democratic senators, that he could potentially overcome a filibuster and see Roe v. Wade codified. It doesn't look like Democrats are going to have that at all.

  But they said that they are going to look more at potential executive actions and other options that the administration can take.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Yes, that does not look likely, but clearly abortion a bigger issue, ultimately, for voters than was expected.

  Laura Barrón-López, thank you.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Thank you.