Abortion-rights groups outspend opponents by more than 6 to 1 in ballot measure campaigns
Promote the groups voting measures to add amendments bills in nine states that would enshrine the right to abortion have raised more than $160 million.
That’s nearly six times what their opponents brought in, The Associated Press found in an analysis of campaign finance data compiled by the watchdog group Open Secrets and state governments.
The campaign spending reports are a snapshot, especially this late in the campaigns when contributions are pouring in for many.
The cash benefit is reflected in ad spend, with data from media tracking company AdImpact showing campaigns have spent more than three times as much as opponents in ads across TV, streaming services, radio and websites.
Abortion rights advocates have prevailed on all seven ballot measures presented to voters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending a nationwide right to abortion and opening the door to the bans and restrictions now in place enforced. in most Republican-controlled states.
Florida is the colossus in this year’s abortion election campaigns.
Supporters of the measure have raised more than $75 million and opponents $10 million. Combined, that’s almost half of the national total.
The Republican Party is using additional funds, including from companies across the country, to urge voters to reject the measure. Including that, supporters still have the lead in ad purchases between $60 and $27 million.
The total spending as of Tuesday is about the same as spending on the U.S. Senate race.
The amendment would reverse a ban on most abortions after the first six weeks of pregnancy — while women often don’t know they are pregnant — was signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and went into effect in May. DeSantis administration has taken steps to thwart the campaign for the amendment.
Florida’s ballot measure rules give opponents a boost: Passage requires approval from 60% of voters instead of a simple majority.
South Dakota is an outlier, with a significant funding advantage for anti-abortion groups.
They raised about $2 million, compared with abortion rights advocates’ $1 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of state campaign disclosures.
A big change occurred last week when the abortion rights group Dakotans for Health reported receiving $540,000 from Think Big America, a fund launched by Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker, a Democrat. The fund’s director, Mike Ollen, said this will ensure ads are seen more widely in what could be a tight race.
Previously, national abortion rights groups, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, had largely ignored South Dakota because, they said, the ballot measure did not go far enough. It would allow restrictions on abortions after the first twelve weeks of pregnancy if they are related to the woman’s health.
“We’re caught between being way too extreme on the right side of the spectrum and not being extreme enough on the left side of the spectrum,” said Rick Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health. “We think we are in the middle of it.”
The anti-abortion campaign in South Dakota, like those elsewhere, is largely focused on portraying the amendment as too extreme. The Think Big money offered a new opportunity to do this.
“South Dakotans do not want extreme views of Chicago, San Francisco and New York to tarnish our great state,” Life Defense Fund spokesperson Caroline Woods said in a statement.
An anti-abortion group last week reported a $25,000 contribution from South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s political action committee.
Nebraska has competing ballot measures.
One would allow abortion until viability, sometime after twenty weeks. The other would ban abortion in most cases after the first 12 weeks — following current state law, but also allowing for a stricter law.
The party pushing to keep the restrictions in place is leading the fundraising race, with at least $9.8 million. One prominent family raised more than half of that. Republican U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts has contributed more than $1 million, and his mother, Marlene Ricketts, has contributed $4 million.
The campaign for greater access has raised at least $6.4 million.
In most places, abortion rights advocates have a big advantage in fundraising.
In Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana and Nevada, opponents have each raised less than $2 million.
Meanwhile, the groups promoting the questions in those states have all raised at least $5 million.
The voting questions have different circumstances.
The Missouri Amendment would open the door to blocking the current state ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions. Proponents of the measure have raised more than $30 million, compared to $1.5 million from opponents.
In Arizona, passing the abortion amendment would overturn the ban after the first fifteen weeks of pregnancy and instead allow abortion until the viability of the fetus, and in some cases later. The state Supreme Court ruled this year that an 1864 ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy could be enforced, but the The legislature immediately repealed it.
Colorado is one of the few that already has no pregnancy limits on when an abortion can be obtained during pregnancy. Montana allows abortion until viability.
Opponents of the Nevada measure have reported no expenditures. To take effect, the amendment must be adopted this year and again in 2026.
Fundraising has been low on both sides Maryland although Pritzker’s fund says it’s sending money there, and New Yorkwhere a ballot measure does not specifically mention abortion but would bar discrimination based on “pregnancy outcomes and reproductive health care and autonomy.”
Liberal groups, including those not required to report who their donors are, are far more active in the campaigns than their anti-abortion counterparts.
The Fairness Project, which promotes progressive ballot measures, has committed $30 million to this year’s abortion amendments. So far, campaign finance reports have shown $10 million in contributions.
Several other abortion rights groups have contributed $5 million or more. No entity on the anti-abortion side has reported giving as much.
Groups that funded most of last year’s campaign against an Ohio abortion rights amendment that voters approved are missing from this year’s list of major contributors.
The Concord Fund, part of a network of political groups around Leonard Leo, a conservative legal activist who was a driving force in securing the appointments of Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe, is not in financial aid at all this year reports appeared. .
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has not been active on the abortion ballot this year, but is pumping money into the presidential race in support of Republican Donald Trump.
“This is the most consequential battle for life before us,” SBA spokesperson Kelsey Pritchard said in a statement, noting that the group plans to spend $92 million in eight states in the presidential race.