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Idaho voters rejected a ballot measure Tuesday that would have repealed the state’s near-total abortion ban and established a right to abortion up to fetal viability, the Associated Press (AP) projected.
With 89% of votes counted, 55.9% of voters, or 334,516, opposed Proposition 1, while 44.1%, or 269,131, supported it.
Idahoans United for Women and Families, the group behind the initiative, conceded defeat early Wednesday.
The campaign drew record spending, including from churches, according to the Capital Sun.
Current Idaho law bans abortions unless necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman, or during the first trimester in reported cases of rape or incest.
Proposition 1 would have allowed abortions until fetal viability, generally considered after 21 weeks of pregnancy, and later for medical emergencies. It would also have enshrined a right to birth control and fertility treatments.
Supporters argued the Republican-led Legislature had gone too far, citing long wait times and fear among doctors. A study published last year found Idaho had lost 94 of the 268 physicians practicing obstetrics when the ban took effect, a 35% decline in two years.
Opponents, including the Idaho Republican Party, said the figures were overblown, noting the number of active OB-GYN licenses in the state had grown since the ban. They also targeted provisions of the measure that went beyond abortion.
Voters in more than one-fifth of U.S. states have approved abortion-rights measures since the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion in 2022, though such measures have failed in Republican-leaning states including Florida and South Dakota.
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