A referendum hostile to the right to abortion failed on Tuesday, November 9 in the very conservative American state of Kentucky, ABC and CNN reported on Wednesday.

Although abortion is currently banned in Kentucky, this is a major victory for abortion rights advocates after the Supreme Court's historic U-turn.

>> To see, our Focus: "Midterm elections in the United States: the issue of abortion at the heart of the campaign"

In June, the high court gave up guaranteeing the right of women to terminate their pregnancy, which it had guaranteed for almost half a century, giving each state their freedom in this area.

Voters were called upon to decide on this referendum as the country voted to renew all seats in the House of Representatives and part of the Senate in the midterm elections.

Kentucky, where Republicans have a solid majority, immediately passed a law banning abortions on its soil.

Several organizations then took legal action to invalidate this law.

In order to block these remedies, abortion opponents had proposed amending the state Constitution to write that it does not "protect" the right to abortion and had submitted this change to the vote of the voters on the sidelines of the elections. midterm on Tuesday.

VICTORY: Kentucky voters just rejected Amendment 2, defeating an extremist attempt to permanently ban abortion.



The majority of Kentuckians made one thing clear: abortion is our right and politicians have no place in our private medical decisions.

— ACLU of Kentucky (@ACLUofKY) November 9, 2022

If they had accepted, it would have put an end to legal action and protected the law currently in force, which does not provide for an exception in the event of rape or incest.

But 52% of voters rejected this hypothesis.

"This is an important victory that lays the groundwork for future progress," noted the Guttmacher Institute, which defends the right to abortion and contraception around the world.

The vote is part of a string of victories for abortion rights advocates, who have also won referendums in the Democratic-majority states of California, Vermont and Michigan.

>> To read also: "American mid-term elections: Joe Biden's risky bet on abortion"

With AFP

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