It was a driving force for a retired banker in San Antonio, an artist in Racine, Wisconsin, an event planner in Miami Beach. It motivated college students and retirees, men and especially women. Even those who might usually skip a midterm election had been compelled to make time to cast a ballot.
Across the nation, voters felt an obligation to weigh in on what, for many, was a vital matter: abortion rights.
"Abortion was my main, core issue," said Urica Carver, 41, a registered Republican from Scranton, Pennsylvania.
A single mother of six children, Carver, a caseworker for the state, said she would have most likely supported Republicans in the midterms. But the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer magnified an issue that outweighed all others, she said. Abortion, she said, was a personal decision, and she would want her own daughters to have the option if needed.
Carver voted a straight Democratic ticket. "If they didn't support that right, regardless of who they were," she said, "they were not getting my vote."
Abortion played a larger role in midterm election results than even many Democrats, who had made it central to their campaigns, expected. Preelection polls had shown Americans fixated on inflation and crime, with abortion still a concern but not as much of a priority.
Those opposed to abortion rights also said the issue moved them to vote. But in states with ballot initiatives that could affect abortion access, the issue drew more people who supported abortion rights, or did not want more restrictions.
In all five states where abortion-related questions were on the ballot Tuesday, voters chose to protect access to the procedure or reject further limits. And in some places where the future of abortion rights were uncertain, Democratic candidates who campaigned on the issue fared well — particularly in Michigan, where voters reelected the Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Josh Shapiro won the governorship and Democrat John Fetterman won the Senate race.
Interviews and exit polls showed abortion rights was a top issue for many voters, even across party lines. That tracks with long-standing polling that has shown most Americans support abortion rights, with some restrictions.
But even as abortion-rights supporters won several key races, there were clear limits on the issue's impact. In candidate matchups in which voters were weighing multiple concerns, many Republicans who have supported abortion limits prevailed, including in Florida, Georgia, Iowa, South Dakota and Texas.
Voters who oppose abortion said they, too, were motivated to have their voices heard.
Addy Diaz, 59, of Miami Beach, said the election was about supporting Republicans who would protect what she felt was a traditional value.
"This is the reason we put these people in power, because they're pro-life," she said. "It's what we've been waiting for a long time."
In Kenosha, Wisconsin, Lupe Roginski, 43, a homemaker and nurse, said she voted for the Republican candidate for governor because of his opposition to abortion.
"That became the deciding factor for me — that he was pro-life," said Roginski, whose candidate lost to the Democratic incumbent, Tony Evers, in a tight race. Abortion is illegal in Wisconsin, but Evers supports abortion rights and has called for a ballot initiative to repeal the state's ban.
The impact of abortion rights was clearest in states where the legality of the procedure was unsettled, including in Michigan, where a 1931 law banning the procedure remains on the books but had been temporarily blocked by a judge. Voters there decisively chose to add abortion protections to the state constitution on Tuesday, while also reelecting Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, Democrats who both campaigned on abortion rights.
"If we were to pick just one issue that made the biggest difference here, by far it's abortion," said John Sellek, a Republican public relations consultant in Michigan. He called Tuesday the "worst day in the modern Michigan GOP history."
Stephanie Chang, a Democratic state senator from Detroit, said she believed the abortion ballot question brought left-leaning voters to the polls who may not have voted otherwise.
"The Dobbs decision was devastating, but in a way I think it was a wake-up call to a lot of people across our state and country," Chang said, referring to the Supreme Court decision in June.
The issue also gained traction in California, where abortion is legal and the Democratic governor has vowed to help women from other states access abortion in the state.
Outside a Peet's Coffee in Berkeley, California, Susan Kopman, 75, said this year's election took on a different tone in an area where residents were accustomed to liberal politics. Voters in California overwhelmingly decided to add abortion rights to the state constitution.
Kopman said that she and almost everyone she knew had previously just accepted abortion as a human right and a fact of life.
"This makes me really sad to have to codify it in the constitution," she said.
Voters in Vermont, another liberal state where abortion is already protected by law, also opted to add protections to their constitution. In Montana, voters rejected a proposed law that would have required medical interventions to save those that the state defines as "born alive" infants.
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Nancy Bush, a retired nurse, said she chose candidates based on whether they supported abortion rights. Abortion is legal in North Carolina up to 20 weeks of pregnancy, and the state's Democratic governor has pledged to stop any attempts by the Republican-controlled legislature to pass new limits.
"I don't like abortion, I prefer no abortion, but certainly the rights of women come over that," said Bush, 79.
The resonance of abortion rights was not limited to Democratic voters. In Kentucky, where Republican Sen. Rand Paul cruised to reelection, voters also rejected an attempt to amend the state constitution to say there is no right to abortion. That result keeps the door open to a legal challenge to Kentucky's abortion ban that the state Supreme Court will hear next week.
"I believe in personal agency and personal autonomy, and bodily autonomy is a big part of that," said Jacob Ballard, 21, a music education major at the University of Kentucky in Lexington who voted against the amendment.
In August, in the country's first major post-Roe test of abortion at the ballot box, Kansas voters overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to remove abortion rights from their state's constitution, a race that showed the political potency of the issue. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat from the Kansas City area, emphasized her support for abortion rights in her successful reelection campaign.
Ashley All, a senior adviser for Families United for Freedom, an abortion-rights group that was involved in the ballot questions in Kentucky, Michigan and Montana, said some Republican voters were also determined to protect abortion access.
"There were a lot of issues that were front and center but this one goes to core, fundamental rights," said All, who was the spokesperson for the successful abortion-rights campaign in Kansas. She added: "That is something that is very motivational for a broad and diverse group of voters."
Howard Nichols, a retiree from Dumfries, Virginia, said he identified as an independent but voted for Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat. Nichols, 79, said he had been turned off by Spanberger's opponent when she suggested that pregnancy from rape may be unlikely in a leaked audio recording.
Even in Wisconsin, where residents were not voting directly to protect or restrict abortion, many were still mulling abortion rights.
Mary Anne Bunkers, 86, of Franklin, Wisconsin, said it was one of the reasons she had been motivated to head to the polls, although there is no realistic path for abortion to be legalized in the state because of an 1849 law that banned the procedure. Republicans have large majorities in the Wisconsin Legislature.
"I consider myself pro-life," she said. "However, I do not feel the government should be involved in people's personal lives."
In Arizona, the future of abortion still hung in the balance with races for governor, attorney general and the makeup of the state Legislature still too close to call Wednesday.
Jolie Amaya, 34, of Mesa, spent hundreds of hours knocking on doors and chatting up voters in the hopes of electing Democrats who support abortion rights.
The Democratic nominee for governor, Katie Hobbs, made abortion rights a focus of her campaign while her Republican rival, Kari Lake, expressed support for an 1864 law — on hold for the moment — that could effectively outlaw almost all abortions in Arizona.
"I'm still sitting on pins and needles," Amaya said.
Reporting was contributed by Julie Bosman, Emily Cataneo, Eliza Fawcett, Jack Healy, Jon Hurdle, Michael Majchrowicz, Amy Qin, Edgar Sandoval and Holly Secon.
