Abortion-rights groups outspend opponents by more than 6 to 1 in ballot measure campaigns

[October 31, 2024]  By GEOFF MULVIHILL

The groups promoting ballot measures to add amendments to the constitutions in nine states that would enshrine a right to abortion have raised more than $160 million.

That's nearly six times what their opponents have 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 in time, especially this late in the campaigns, when contributions are rolling in for many.

The cash advantage is showing up in ad spending, where data from the media tracking firm AdImpact shows campaigns have spent more than three times as much as opponents in ads on TV, streaming services, radio and websites.

Abortion-rights supporters have prevailed on all seven ballot measures that have gone before voters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, which ended a nationwide right to abortion and opened the door for the bans and restrictions that are now being enforced in most Republican-controlled states.

Most of the money is going to Florida

Florida is the behemoth in this year’s abortion ballot-measure campaigns.

Proponents of the measure have raised more than $75 million and opponents $10 million. Combined, that's nearly half the national total.

The state Republican Party is using additional funds, including from corporations across the country, to urge voters to reject the measure. Including that, supporters still lead in ad-buying: $60 million to $27 million.

The total spent as of Tuesday is about the same amount spent on the state’s U.S. Senate race.

The amendment would overturn a ban on most abortions after the first six weeks of pregnancy — when women often don't know they're pregnant — that was signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and took 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.

An influx of funding arrives in South Dakota

South Dakota is an outlier, with a significant funding advantage for anti-abortion groups.

According to an Associated Press analysis of state campaign disclosures, they've raised about $2 million compared with abortion-rights supporters’ $1 million.

There was a big change last week when the abortion-rights group Dakotans for Health reported that it had received $540,000 from Think Big America, a fund launched by Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker, a Democrat. The fund's director, Mike Ollen, said that's helping ads get seen more widely in what could be a close race.

Before that, national abortion-rights groups, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, had mostly ignored South Dakota because, they said, the ballot measure doesn't go far enough. It would allow regulations of abortions after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy if they relate to the health of the woman.

“We find ourselves being caught between being way too extreme on the right end of the spectrum and not extreme enough on the left end of the spectrum,” said Rick Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health. “We think we're right in the middle.”

The anti-abortion campaign in South Dakota, like those elsewhere, is focused largely on portraying the amendment as too extreme. The Think Big money provided a new chance to do that.

“South Dakotans don’t want extreme Chicago, San Francisco, and New York views tainting our great state,” Life Defense Fund spokesperson Caroline Woods said in a statement.

One anti-abortion group reported a $25,000 contribution last week from South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem's political action committee.

Funding is close to even in a state with competing ballot measures

Nebraska has competing ballot measures.

Abortion rights advocates hold a rally in support of the "Yes On 4" campaign in downtown Orlando, Fla., April 13, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel via AP, File)

One would allow abortion until viability, considered to be somewhere after 20 weeks. The other would bar abortion in most cases after the first 12 weeks — echoing current state law, but also allowing for a stricter one.

The side pushing to keep restrictions is leading the fundraising race, with at least $9.8 million. One prominent family has supplied more than half of that. Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts has contributed more than $1 million, and his mother, Marlene Ricketts, has chipped in $4 million.

The campaign for more access has raised at least $6.4 million.

In some states, the opposition has been quiet

In most places, abortion-rights supporters have a big fundraising lead.

In Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana and Nevada, the opponents had each reported raising less than $2 million before Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the groups promoting the questions in those states have all collected at least $5 million.

The ballot questions have different circumstances.

Missouri's amendment would open the door to blocking the state's current ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Proponents of the measure have raised more than $30 million to opponents' $1.5 million.

In Arizona, passing the abortion amendment would roll back a ban after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy and instead allow it until fetal viability, and later in some cases. The state's Supreme Court ruled this year that an 1864 ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy could be enforced, but the Legislature promptly repealed it.

Colorado is one of the few states that already has no gestational limits on when during pregnancy abortion can be obtained. Montana allows abortion until viability.

Opponents of Nevada's measure have not reported any spending. To take effect, the amendment needs to pass this year and again in 2026.

Fundraising has been low on both sides in Maryland, though Pritzker's fund says it's sending money there, and New York, where a ballot measure doesn't mention abortion specifically but would bar discrimination based on "pregnancy outcomes and reproductive healthcare and autonomy."

Big contributions from national groups are one-sided

Liberal groups, including those that aren't 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 pledged $30 million for this year’s abortion amendments. So far, $10 million in its contributions have shown up in campaign finance reports.

Several other abortion-rights groups have contributed $5 million or more. No single entity on the anti-abortion side has reported giving that much.

Groups that funded the majority of last year’s campaign against an Ohio abortion-rights amendment that voters approved are absent from this year's list of big contributors.

The Concord Fund, part of a network of political groups centered around conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, didn't show up in campaign finance reports until Wednesday, when a Missouri filing showed the group gave $1 million the day before to a group opposing the ballot measure there. Leo was a driving force in securing nominations of Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has not been active on abortion ballot measures this year, but it is pumping money into the presidential race in support of Republican Donald Trump.

“This is the most consequential fight for life before us,” SBA spokesperson Kelsey Pritchard said in a statement, noting that the group is aiming to spend $92 million in eight states in the presidential race.

All contents © copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved