The Gavel sculpture in Columbus outside the Ohio Supreme Court, where Republican gains this week resulted in a supermajority on the bench. Four states with post-Dobbs bans saw victories for judicial candidates backed by abortion opponents. (Graham Stokes/Ohio Capital Journal)
State Supreme Court justices who upheld abortion restrictions racked up major wins across the country last week. Legal battles over policy have often found their way to these courtrooms since federal protections for reproductive rights dissipated in 2022.
In Arizona, where an abortion-rights ballot measure succeeded, two judges who voted with the majority to uphold a 19th century abortion ban in April will stay on the bench.
Although votes in the state are still being counted, at least 58% of voters retained Justice Clint Bolick, and at least 60% of voters backed Justice Kathryn King as of Thursday morning. At the same time, more than 75% of voters rejected a ballot measure that would have given the judges lifetime appointments, Arizona Mirror reported.
Florida also had two justices and a proposed abortion-rights amendment on the ballot. Roughly 57% of voters marked “yes” on a question that would have codified the right to an abortion up to fetal viability, but the measure didn’t clear the 60% threshold required to amend the Florida Constitution.
More than 60% of voters retained Justices Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso, judges appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Phoenix reported. Francis and Sasso dissented in the April ruling that allowed Amendment 4 to make the ballot. They also joined the majority decision that allowed the six-week abortion ban to take effect in May.
Meanwhile in Ohio, all three Republican state Supreme Court candidates won their races, which will soon give the GOP a 6-1 supermajority. “These three conservative pro-life judges earned Ohio’s pro-life vote,” Ohio Right to Life said in a statement.
Abortion restrictions in the state are still being hashed out in court a year after 57% of voters approved a reproductive rights amendment last year, Ohio Capital Journal reported. The 4-3 Republican-leaning bench dismissed the state’s appeal on the six-week abortion ban in December 2023, sending it back to the lower courts.
“We are deeply concerned that the majority of the Supreme Court of Ohio will now be held by justices that have been endorsed by extreme anti-abortion organizations,” Abortion Forward Executive Director Kellie Copeland said in a statement.
Even though abortion is legal up to fetal viability thanks to voters, Hamilton County Judge Christian Jenkins struck a dormant six-week ban from the books in October, according to the Capital Journal, so the Ohio attorney general still has a few weeks left to appeal the decision.
And in Texas, three Republicans were reelected to the all-GOP state Supreme Court, despite an effort from Democrats who emphasized the court’s abortion rulings, Texas Tribune reported. One of the conservative justices who won Tuesday was John Devine, who said he was arrested 37 times at anti-abortion protests in the ’80s and ’90s.
Last year, Texas’ high court overturned a ruling that would have allowed a Dallas woman to get an abortion for a nonviable pregnancy. In May, the justices rejected a request from 20 women and two doctors seeking clarity on which pregnancy complications could result in abortion care under state law, according to the Tribune.
A Democratic group called Find Out PAC that ran an abortion-rights focused campaign opposing the three judges plans to continue advocacy efforts.
“We look forward to working with the party and national and state partners to invest in helping voters understand the important role the Texas Supreme Court plays in attacking their reproductive freedoms,” said Gina Ortiz Jones, the group’s founder, in a statement. “Reshaping the Texas Supreme Court is a marathon, not a sprint.”