'Stay one step ahead': GOP operatives scramble to keep popular initiatives off the ballot

A year and a half after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republican operatives are using tactics like purchasing "TV and digital ads, knocking on doors and holding events" to keep the issue of abortion off ballots across the country, Politico reports.

Per the report, "The actions follow abortion-rights victories in Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio, and underscore abortion opponents’ fears that their monumental victory overturning Roe v. Wade is being undone one state at a time."

For instance, according to Politico, the group Students for Life of America intends to implement the tactics in states like "Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Missouri to persuade people not to give organizers the signatures they need."

Additionally, "Anti-abortion groups in Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota are using a similar approach. The Nebraska Catholic Conference, for example, is urging its members to not only refuse to sign but also to hamper canvassers’ efforts to get signatures from others."

Arkansas' GOP attorney general, Politico reports, "Recently rejected the name and ballot title of a proposed constitutional amendment to restore abortion rights in the state up to 18 weeks after conception, saying it was misleading, contradictory and possibly redundant."

Likewise, Florida Voice for the Unborn leader Andrew Shrivell "said his organization has deployed 50 'captains' across the state to pass out flyers in English and Spanish urging people not to sign, and set up a website where people can report sightings of abortion-rights canvassers and 'alert local pro-life advocates in the area to counteract the pro-aborts.'"

However, the news outlet notes, "Abortion-rights advocates are bracing for other states to adopt this tactic, particularly Nebraska where the governor recently said a proposed abortion-rights ballot measure is 'very vague' because 'fetal viability' could be defined 'a lot of different ways.'"

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Kelly Hall, head of the progressive group the Fairness Project said, "What we have learned from this growing drumbeat of opposition to citizen-initiated ballot measures from elected officials is that they continue to innovate, they continue to get more creative at how they want to deny voters the opportunity to vote on these questions. It’s a game of trying to stay one step ahead."