(Oregon Right to Life) — An Oregon ballot initiative effort to enshrine a “right” to abortion and controversial gender-related issues into the state constitution has been withdrawn after failing to gather the required signatures. The withdrawal of the effort is great news for the unborn and for pro-life advocates across Oregon.
On Friday, February 6, the so-called “Equal Rights for All” coalition – consisting of Basic Rights Oregon, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon – announced that it was withdrawing its effort to place Initiative Petition 33 on the 2026 Oregon ballot.
“Our coalition considered many components of the ballot initiative campaign when making the decision not to move forward this year, including deep conversations with supporters who all share an ongoing commitment to rights, justice and bodily autonomy,” the coalition said in a statement.
The proposal would have amended Section 46, Article I of Oregon’s constitution to explicitly prohibit “discrimination” on the basis of “pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and related health decisions…” Abortion is already legal in Oregon for any reason up to the moment of birth. In effect, the amendment would have prevented nearly all future legislative moves to protect the unborn.
The Equal Rights for All coalition reportedly spent roughly $1.3 million to advance the campaign, submitting only 12,194 signatures as of late January, according to Willamette Week. The coalition said in its February statement it had garnered about 52,000 signatures, however that number is still far short of the more than 156,000 signature threshold needed to get the initiative on the ballot.
The move to drop the “Equal Rights for All” effort comes after the group announced the launch of its pro-abortion initiative on June 24, 2024, the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson to overturn Roe v. Wade, allowing states to pass laws limiting or banning abortion.
Oregon Right to Life and other coalition partners have watched the efforts closely, preparing to launch an oppositional campaign to block the initiative and ensure that legislative means would remain available to create future legal protections for Oregon’s unborn. Prior to the end of the short legislative session last week, a potential window remained open for the initiative to move forward as a legislative referral, however that option was not pursued.
The failed effort is very similar to a 2023 Senate Joint Resolution that also would have enshrined abortion into the state constitution.
SJR 33, which was backed by the same groups that attempted to put forward IP 33, was introduced in the Senate in April 2023 but never made it out of committee after Republican senators staged an historic walkout.
Despite the efforts of radical pro-abortion groups, most Oregonians believe there should be limits on later abortions. Recent national polling found that 57% of respondents supported limiting abortions to the first trimester and 67% supported at least some legal limits.
READ: New Poll Finds Clear Majority of Americans Still Support Abortion Limits
In 2022, a DHM Research poll found that 58% of Oregonians surveyed believed that the unborn should be protected in the third trimester (the last three months of pregnancy, when an unborn baby is fully developed and can survive outside the womb), unless abortion is deemed necessary to save the life of the mother. However, babies in the third trimester can be delivered via induced labor or C-section if the mother’s life would be jeopardized by carrying the pregnancy to term.
