Several states see surge in women registering to vote following Supreme Court abortion ruling

Associated Press/Mary Altaffer
Abortion-rights protesters attend a rally following the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, federally protected right to abortion, outside the state capitol in Lansing, Mich., Friday, June 24, 2022. The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years, a decision by its conservative majority to overturn the court’s landmark abortion cases. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Several states where reproduction rights are at risk are seeing a surge in women registering to vote following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade case, abolishing the constitutional right to abortion.

An analysis by TargetSmart Insights, a Democratic political data and data services firm, found that women are out-registering men by significant margins in states where reproductive rights are in danger of being repealed, such as Kansas, Wisconsin and Michigan.

In Kansas, women out-registered men by 40 percent, making 70 percent of all new registrants women. Earlier this month, voters in the state rejected a proposed amendment that would have paved the way for the Republican-led state legislature to ban the procedure.

However, Kansas was not the only state to see an increase in female voter registration.

In Michigan, where legal battles are taking place over abortion rights, women out-registered men by 8.1 percent since the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Last week, a state judge blocked county prosecutors from enforcing a 91-year-old law banning abortion in Michigan while courts consider a lawsuit seeking to overturn the law.

In Wisconsin, where it is now a felony for virtually any abortion to be performed, except in instances where it is needed to save the mother’s life, women have out-registered men by 15.6 percent since the Supreme Court’s decision.

In Louisiana, women outpaced men in new registrations by 13 percent since the decision, while in Pennsylvania, women out-registered men by 12 percent.

“This isn’t just a blue state phenomena. In fact, it is more pronounced in states where choice is more at risk, or has been eliminated by the decision,” the CEO of TargetSmart tweeted.

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