Rev. Krista Taves is the pastor at Eliot Unitarian Chapel in Kirkwood, Mo., whose members campaigned for Amendment 3 to enshrine abortion rights in the state on Nov. 5.Supplied
Krista Taves, a Canadian Unitarian minister in Missouri, sat with her partner and two dogs in her living room in a suburb outside St. Louis, bingeing the third season of Bridgerton, and flicking to the U.S. election briefly for updates – the only way, she said, to protect her spirit.
At Southeast Missouri State University, two hours away, Bailee Porteous was crowded into a dorm room with six friends and Salem the cat. The 21-year-old was tracking the national coverage on TV while monitoring local news on her phone, a bottle of sparkling grape juice at the ready for the hoped-for, celebratory toast.
And 1,600 kilometres to the southwest in St. Petersburg, Fla., Alexis Hobbs, 21, sat on her couch, anxiously Facetiming with her husband, Logan Wallace, a military airplane mechanic serving in New Mexico. No matter what happens, they agreed, stay positive.
On Tuesday night, these three women weren’t only watching the nail-biting race for president. They were waiting to learn whether women in their state would regain the right to choose.
In each of their cities, they’d all campaigned, in various ways, to restore the abortion rights lost after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Across the country, as a result of citizen petitions, 10 states were counting votes on constitutional amendments to either enshrine existing rights or loosen restrictions. But in Florida and Missouri, the stakes were particularly high: successful amendments would overturn two of the country’s most severe abortion bans, and replace them with laws among the most liberal.
A few hours before midnight, the results flashed on their screens.
In Missouri, the grape juice was cracked open. In Florida, there were tears.
Together with her friends, Ms. Porteous raised a glass, calling out the word “abortion,” the only toast she could think of at the time.
The amendment had passed with 52 per cent of the vote, cause for celebration. In Missouri, abortion had been fully banned, barring a medical emergency, but with no exceptions for rape or incest. The new amendment created a constitutional right to abortion up until about 24 weeks, with an exception, after that, for risk to the life or health of the mother.
But the mood in the room was muted. The group, all members of the activist organization Students for a Democratic Society of Cape Girardeau, had divvied up the swing states to feed results to each other; they knew very well what those numbers signalled. They’d already heard the devastating news out of Florida. And Missouri voters were about to elect a roster of conservative, anti-abortion politicians.
Ms. Hobbs was on a call with other pro-amendment activists, when she finally broke down and wept. The Florida amendment had received 57.2 per cent of the vote, higher than many other states. But it had fallen short of the supermajority, 60 per cent of the popular vote, needed to pass. This means Florida’s existing Heartbeat Protection Act stays; the law bans abortion at six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.
“I’m so proud of you,” Mr. Wallace, 20, kept telling Ms. Hobbs, as she tried to accept what had just happened.
Ms. Hobbs had volunteered for 12 hours that day, distributing flyers in her apartment complex, reminding fellow students to vote, and handing out stickers and answering questions at a local voting precinct until the polls closed, taking her last chance to make her voice heard. She arrived home optimistic – almost everyone she met had been a yes vote for the amendment. Then everything crumbled.
But the work doesn’t stop, she said; women will still need help travelling out of state for abortions, there are still injustices that need correcting, and maybe another shot to change the law in the future. She mourns for her country, however. “I have this fear that we have lost empathy,” she said. “I don’t know when we stopped caring about the people that we were leaving behind.”
When the results came in on Tuesday night, Michaela O’Brien, 23, was surrounded by a dozen sixtysomething neighbours at her mom’s election party in Fort Meyers, Fla.; she excused herself to the bathroom to take a moment to breathe, swamped by anger and grief.
She thought about the hours she spent educating her peers, the sunburns she’d acquired door-knocking, the countless conversations trying to convince people to care. What had it all been for?
By Thursday, however, she was resolved, already designing the Planned Parenthood float in her university’s upcoming Pride Parade. “I’m heartbroken,” she said, “but not broken.”
Still, she plans to leave Florida when she graduates from university next year. “I don’t really want to become a parent here,” she said. “But I’m still fighting for the rights of people who told me that they didn’t vote because they don’t believe that it changes anything.”
Rev. Taves used to volunteer as a “faithful presence” at an abortion clinic, standing outside with other clergy to distract hostile protesters from the patients slipping in the door. This past year, members of her congregation canvassed and helped distribute signs in support of the amendment.
But on the evening of reckoning, “I didn’t want my emotions pulled every which way,” she said. Hiding out in a soapy Regency-era romance with a happy ending was about as far from 2024 reality as she could get.
And even though the amendment passed in Missouri, abortion activists are bracing for legal battles with the Republican legislature. “Our government has a strong history of trying to water down the decisions of voters,” said Rev. Taves, who moved to Missouri in 2005, pointing to a previous amendment that expanded access to Medicaid, but was then underfunded by the state, limiting who could receive it.
To her fellow Canadians, Rev. Taves sends a reminder to be vigilant. “It’s not an upward trajectory, even when you think your rights have been safeguarded. Ground can be lost, and you will need to fight to protect them.”