Housing, gender, abortion policies among state ballot measures in 2026 September 4, 2026By Kate Scanlon OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, U.S. Congress, World News WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Voters in multiple states will consider ballot measures on topics ranging from abortion and gender policy to housing and tax policy in November. State ballot measures ask voters to weigh in directly on a policy item, law or regulation, sometimes in lieu of or alongside the legislative process. Rules and procedures for their inclusion on ballots vary by state, as do the topics each state may consider. Voters in four states will consider ballot measures related to abortion policy. Ballot measures in Idaho, Nevada and Virginia would establish abortion as a state right, while a ballot measure in Missouri, Amendment 3, would both limit abortion and certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender. Jamie Morris, executive director and general counsel for the Missouri Catholic Conference, told OSV News Aug. 14 that he is “cautiously optimistic” about Amendment 3’s passage. A St. Louis University and YouGov survey of 900 likely Missouri voters conducted in February and released in March found that while 47% of voters said abortion should be legal in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy compared to 43% who disagree, it also found 67% of voters said they oppose allowing minors to receive gender transition procedures, including hormone therapy, puberty-blocking medication or surgery. Asked how voters might weigh the two separate issues when combined, Morris acknowledged that “there’s a very good chance that the gender issue could pull the abortion issue across the finish line.” Since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, resulting in each state determining its abortion laws, voters in most states with ballot measures on abortion in 2022, 2023 and 2024 have supported abortion protections or rejected abortion bans. Asked about how their organization is approaching ballot measures in 2026, Sue Liebel, director of state affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a group based in Arlington, Virginia, that seeks to elect candidates to public office who oppose abortion, pointed to a bill recently signed into law in Massachusetts removing prior legal restrictions on abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy. “The abortion lobby is trying to enact this same barbaric abortion policy in Virginia, Nevada and Idaho with ballot measures that allow abortion at any point, take away women’s health and safety protections, and end parental rights,” Liebel said in comments to OSV News. SBA, she said, “stands with local pro-life leaders who are pushing back against these extreme pro-abortion measures, including Gov. (Mike) Kehoe and pro-life advocates in Missouri who are working to undo an extreme ballot measure that passed in 2024.” “That year,” she said, pro-life advocates “lost the fight in Missouri where we were outspent 8 to 1, but we won crucial ballot measure victories in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota.” She added: “Based on SBA’s experience in those states and other ballot measure fights, in order for the pro-life side to win, GOP leaders must be engaged in the fight, and coalitions must be well organized and capable of raising enough money to go on offense and debunk the abortion lobby’s lies.” In a recent video message, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, urged Catholics in that state to reject Virginia’s ballot measure, which he described as “dangerous,” as well as another that would amend the Virginia Constitution to remove a ban on same-sex marriage. Bans on same-sex marriage in Virginia and other states have effectively been defunct since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. Four ballot measures in Arizona, Nebraska, Colorado and Washington would implement requirements for student athletes to participate on teams that correspond to their biological sex. Another Colorado measure would prohibit certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender. Voters in four states will consider a total of six ballot measures on housing policy, the most in a single year in two decades, according to Ballotpedia, a digital encyclopedia of American politics and elections, which tracks such data. California has three housing measures on its ballot, while Hawaii, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have one each. CNBC’s All-America Economic Survey for the second quarter of 2026 found the cost of housing is the top political issue for U.S. voters between 18 and 34 years old. Voters in North Dakota will consider a ballot measure that would authorize funds for the state to start providing free breakfast and lunch to public school students during the 2027-28 school year. Other notable ballot measures include a California effort to impose a one-time 5% tax on the assets of the state’s billionaires, an Alaska measure that would repeal the top-four ranked-choice voting system the state adopted in 2020, and a Utah measure that would raise the threshold to approve new taxes at the ballot box to 60%. 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