Abortion rights amendments qualify for the ballot in Colorado and South Dakota

Officials in Colorado and South Dakota have certified proposed amendments that would enshrine abortion access in their states' constitutions to appear on the November ballot.

South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson, a Republican, said in a statement late Thursday that her office had validated the petition for the ballot measure, finding that organizers behind the effort had filed more than the required number of signatures for it to qualify.

The ballot measure's placement can still be challenged before June 17.

And in Colorado, Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold's office issued a notice Friday that will also clear the way for an amendment that would formally enshrine access to abortion in Colorado’s constitution to appear on the ballot this year.

Constitutional amendments to enshrine abortion rights will now appear on the general election ballot in at least four states, including Florida and Maryland. In New York, a judge blocked a proposed amendment's placement on the November ballot this month, but the ruling is under appeal and organizers predict the measure will appear on the ballot. Organizers in another six states are attempting to do the same.

Organizers for Dakotans For Health, the group behind the proposed amendment in South Dakota, celebrated the achievement.

“Two long years after we began, the South Dakota Secretary of State today certified that the people of South Dakota, not the politicians in Pierre, will be the ones to decide whether to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of South Dakota,” Dakotans For Health Chair Rick Weiland said in a statement. “If there is anyone out there who still wonders whether abortion rights will be on the ballot in South Dakota this Fall, today is your answer.”

The group’s proposal would make abortion legal in all situations in the first trimester of a pregnancy. It would allow “regulation” by the state of abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy, but such regulation “must be reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.” The amendment would allow “regulation or prohibition” by the state in the third trimester, except in cases when a physician has determined that the care would be necessary to “preserve the life or health” of the woman.

If it passes, the amendment would effectively undo the state’s near-total ban on abortion, which snapped back into effect after Roe v. Wade was struck down in 2022. The law, which abortion advocates say is among the harshest in the U.S., prohibits all abortions except when necessary to save the woman’s life.

While abortion rights supporters have found success with ballot measures in conservative states like Kansas and Kentucky since the fall of Roe, South Dakota presents a particularly steep challenge. The ballot measure will need to win a simple majority to pass in a state Donald Trump won by 26 points in 2020.

Organizers have encountered robust resistance to their efforts, including legal challenges. But the group earlier this month submitted more than 55,000 signatures of registered voters in the state — far more than the 35,000 needed to move forward with getting the proposal on the ballot.

State officials said Friday that 85% of those — or just over 46,000 — were found to be valid, meaning organizers ended up with 11,000 more signatures than had been required.

In Colorado, the reproductive rights landscape is vastly different. Unlike in many other states, there are no laws restricting abortion in Colorado; it is one of just six states where there are no gestational limits at all for women seeking an abortion. As a result, Colorado has become a haven of sorts for women who live in states where abortion is restricted or effectively illegal.

The proposed amendment there would declare formally that “the right to abortion is hereby recognized” and that “government shall not deny, impede or discriminate against the exercise of that right.”

The proposal explicitly states that the government may not prohibit health insurance coverage for abortion, including insurance plans for public employees and publicly funded insurance plans. That provision would effectively undo a 1984 law that barred people from using their health insurance to pay for abortion care.

“In this time of uncertainty, we need to secure abortion rights and access in the Colorado Constitution, beyond the reach of politics and politicians. This initiative will secure that right for present and future generations,” Karen Middleton, co-chair of Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom, the group behind the measure, said in a statement.

Middleton’s group said it submitted to state officials the signatures of more than 225,000 registered voters — more than the approximately 124,000 required to qualify for this fall’s ballot.

Organizers behind the Colorado amendment effort have argued it is crucial to formally enshrine those rights so lawmakers never have the opportunity to undo them.

To pass in November, the measure requires the support of 55% of voters under state law — not just a simple majority.

Organizers have expressed confidence they will cross that threshold, pointing out that abortion rights supporters defeated a proposed ballot initiative in 2020 that sought to restrict abortion rights in the state 59% to 41% — a better margin of victory in the blue state that year than Joe Biden’s in the presidential race.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com