Supporters of ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments guaranteeing abortion rights are building a massive fundraising advantage over abortion opponents in the weeks before Election Day, as polling shows most of those measures poised to win voter approval.
Campaign finance reports filed in the 10 states where abortion-related measures will appear on the ballot show supporters have raised almost $178 million for their respective campaigns — nearly 10 times the $18.9 million abortion rights opponents have raised.
In many of the most watched contests, the advantage for pro-abortion rights advocates is even more pronounced.
Arizona for Abortion Access, the group supporting Proposition 139 to create a constitutional right to an abortion, had pulled in $32.7 million through the end of September, according to campaign finance reports filed Tuesday. It Goes Too Far, the main organization opposing the proposition, had raised just under $1.3 million.
Floridians Protecting Freedom, which backs Amendment 4 to provide a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability, had raised $76.4 million, according to its most recent finance report. Five opposition groups, led by a political action committee headed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), had raised a collective $10 million through the same period.
In Missouri, a red state where Republicans are expected to easily win the governorship and hold a U.S. Senate seat, supporters of Amendment 3 had raised $21.8 million — about 100 times the $211,000 that Missouri Stands With Women, the lone opposition group, had managed to raise.
And in Montana, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights had raised $20.5 million. Two opposition groups had combined to raise just $330,000 through the same period.
Abortion rights opponents have raised more money than supporters in just two states: South Dakota, where both sides had raised less than $400,000, and Nebraska, where opponents had raised about $7 million compared with $3.7 million for abortion rights supporters.
Nebraska is a unique case: Both supporters and opponents of abortion rights qualified ballot measures there. One measure, Initiative 434, would ban abortions after the first trimester. Another, Initiative 439, would create a state constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability.
Opponents of abortion rights raised all of their money from two wealthy Republican families. Marlene Ricketts, wife of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, donated $4 million; her son, U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), added another $1.1 million to the Protect Women & Children Committee. The Peed family, owners of a Lincoln-based information processing company, contributed another $2 million.
Many of the advertisements the pro-abortion rights advocates have used their advantage to pay for have focused on first-person stories of women who have been impacted by existing state laws that restrict abortion access.
“We’ve focused or campaign on women and their experiences with the abortion ban in Florida,” said Lauren Brenzel, the campaign manager behind Florida’s Amendment 4. “These are relatable human experiences.”
Supporters of abortion rights are collecting much of their campaign cash from a handful of wealthy liberal interest groups. None have given more than the Fairness Project, a 501(c)(4) organization that backs progressive ballot initiatives, which has spent $30 million to advance pro-abortion rights measures, according to Kelly Hall, the group’s executive director.
“A great deal of effort is going into nonpartisan communication to make as broad a tent as possible, so that every voter can see themselves as welcome in these campaigns,” Hall said Wednesday.
Planned Parenthood and its local affiliates appear most frequently in campaign finance reports filed by supportive campaigns. The Open Society Action Fund, the political arm run by Democratic mega donor Alex Soros, contributed $1 million to the campaign in Missouri, $1 million to the group backing Nevada’s Question 6 and $1 million to support Colorado’s Amendment 79.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican-turned-independent who sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has also emerged as a major funder of pro-abortion rights measures. Bloomberg has spent at least $4 million on abortion rights campaigns in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri and Montana.
The flood of pro-abortion rights spending comes as most polls show those measures winning voter approval. Two polls conducted in Arizona last month show Proposition 139 leading by more than 20-point margins. A September poll conducted by Emerson College found Missouri’s Amendment 3 leading by a nearly two-to-one margin. A Fox News poll in Nevada in late August found 75% of voters backing Question 6.
Florida’s Amendment 4 faces a more difficult path: State law requires 60% of voters to approve of a constitutional amendment. A New York Times survey conducted this month showed just 46% backing Amendment 4, while a survey conducted in September showed the amendment winning 55% of the vote, still shy of the 60% necessary.