Idaho voters reject ballot measure on abortion, preserving the state’s ban, NBC News projects

Voters have rejected an Idaho ballot measure that would have codified the right to an abortion up until fetal viability, NBC News projects.

The move preserves Idaho’s abortion ban, which went into effect in 2022 following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed abortion rights nationally.

The Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act Initiative, also known as Proposition 1, would have gone into effect in 2027. Proposition 1 would have allowed the government to regulate abortion only after fetal viability, except in the case of a medical emergency to save the life of the woman.

The initiative defined fetal viability as a fetus’ having “a significant likelihood of sustained survival outside of the uterus without extraordinary medical measures.” Fetal viability is generally thought to be around six months into a pregnancy, or around 23 to 24 weeks.

Proposition 1 stated that reproductive healthcare should be decided “by a person in consultation with their health care provider.”

“The act supports a person’s right to reproductive freedom and privacy, protects the confidential nature of the patient-provider relationship, and secures a person’s right to make their own health care decisions without government interference,” it said.

Proposition 1 would have given everyone in Idaho the right to “reproductive freedom and privacy,” which was defined as “the right to make personal decisions about reproductive health care that directly impact the person’s own body.”

The initiative said Idahoans have a right to make their own decisions about abortion, childbirth care, contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care and prenatal, pregnancy and postpartum care.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights website, from 2022 to earlier this year, 11 states expanded access to abortion and reproductive care since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

Almost a third of Idaho’s OB-GYNs moved away, stopped practicing or retired from August 2022 to December 2024, according to a study published in a medical journal.