Nebraska’s supreme court is the latest to grapple with the language of an abortion ballot measure, as similar tensions and litigation over state initiatives are ramping up across the country ahead of November. 

With a record number of state abortion measures on the ballot this year — in 10 states in total — pressure has been mounting on abortion proponents to keep up their winning streak, as they’ve prevailed in all seven states where the issue has been put before voters since the 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade. Yet, for abortion opponents who are increasingly playing hardball, Nebraska, Florida, and Missouri appear to be the latest states where their efforts are picking up.

Nebraska has two abortion-related measures set for its ballot. One seeks to enshrine the state’s 12-week ban into the Nebraska constitution, with exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergency. The other measure aims to amend the constitution to provide “all persons the fundamental right to abortion” until “fetal viability.”

The dueling measures are historic in that they make the state the first in the country to have competing abortion initiatives on the same ballot since the overturn of Roe, and the measures also appear to be the first in Nebraska on any subject to be in direct conflict with each other. 

Several legal challenges to Nebraska’s initiatives are under way as the secretary of state, Bob Evnen, faces a September 13 deadline to certify the general election ballot. The Nebraska supreme court heard arguments on the challenges Monday, centering around the language of the ballots, to whom and what age range the measures would apply, and whether one or both initiatives violate the state’s single-subject rule.

The New York Sun reached out to a group opposing the initiative in court, the Thomas More Society, and the group supporting the initiative, Protect Our Rights, for comment. The Thomas More Society is also backing an effort opposing Missouri’s abortion measure, and a circuit court judge last week agreed that the initiative is invalid. Missouri’s supreme court is set to hear arguments Tuesday over whether that measure can appear on the ballot in November. 

In Florida, Governor DeSantis’s administration is reportedly turning to unusual methods in a ramped-up fight against Florida’s Amendment 4, a ballot measure seeking to allow abortions “before viability” or when necessary for the patient’s health. Abortion is currently legal up until a heartbeat can be detected — about six weeks into a pregnancy.

The governor’s administration is seeking to inspect thousands of already-confirmed signatures for the abortion initiative, the Miami Herald is reporting, with police even visiting petition signees at their homes in an apparent attempt to prevent fraud. Mr. DeSantis’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ballot measure “would allow abortions at any time and for almost any reason, including late-term abortions when a baby can feel pain,” the governor’s wife wrote on X today, echoing similar statements from Mr. DeSantis. “It would eliminate Florida’s parental consent law and eliminate the requirement that only licensed doctors can perform abortions. Soros-backed Amendment 4 is dangerous, deceptive, and extreme.” 

A majority of likely Florida voters — 55 percent — said they would vote in support of Amendment 4, according to recent polling from the Hill and Emerson College, but that majority still doesn’t meet the 60 percent support required for the ballot measure to pass. 

Yet, as conservatives and abortion opponents seek to get tougher on the abortion measures, there’s a possibility that they are overestimating Florida’s conservative tilt.  

“I think DeSantis’s overperformance in 2022 overshadows the fact that Biden only lost by 3.4 percent,” an elections analyst at the University of Florida, Cassidy Reller, told Newsweek. “Since 2022, DeSantis has implemented a lot of controversial salient culture war issues; there is a chance that he pushed too hard to enact unpopular laws on social issues like six-week abortion bans, LGBTQ+ policy, and controversial education policy and that voters will move away from the Republicans again.”

While Mr. DeSantis won nearly 60 percent of the vote in 2022, that could have more to do with his pandemic response than culture war issues, she said. 

“I think many Floridians do not like the negative attention all these controversial policies have brought to the state, and there is a chance voters react negatively to it in 2024, giving Democrats a surprise victory and potentially a chance to pick up a Senate seat,” she said.