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In April 2004, Kamala Harris was less than four months into her new job as San Francisco’s district attorney, a high-profile position that thrust her into the local headlines, when she flew to Washington, D.C., to become one face in a sea of more than a million. People from around the country descended on the National Mall for the March for Women’s Lives, organized by groups including Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women, to call for the protection and expansion of reproductive health care, including abortion rights. (Knight and Belluck, 10/29)

Pennsylvania Democrats believe their path to expanding power in the state Legislature runs through the suburbs — and they’re hammering the importance of protecting reproductive rights to pull it off. Two and a half years after Dobbs, ensuring that voters continue to be swayed by abortion messaging is critical for Democrats in Harrisburg, where the party holds a single-seat majority in the state House and Republicans control the Senate. That’s why Democrats are spending a record amount on abortion-focused campaign ads and knocking on thousands of doors making the case for protecting reproductive rights. (Crampton, 10/30)

The closest West Virginia voters could come to having their say at the ballot box on whether abortion should be legal in the post-Roe v. Wade era might be in this year’s governor’s race. State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams have been leaders and occasional allies in the fight against drug abuse in West Virginia, both working to stem the flow of pharmaceuticals into the state with the highest opioid death rate in the nation. But when it comes to reproductive rights, the two could hardly be further apart. (Willingham, 10/30)

On a sunny Saturday in October, Johanna Kelley set out to canvass for two ballot propositions personal to her: one that would raise the minimum wage and create paid sick leave and another that would establish a constitutional right to abortion in the state of Missouri, which for more than two years has been under a near-total abortion ban. (Panetta, 10/29)

Anti-abortion centers and their leaders have been campaigning against the abortion ballot measures in 10 states in the lead up to Election Day. The organizations — also known as crisis pregnancy centers — have sought to remove those measures from state ballots and distributed materials with misleading talking points. It’s a pattern that shows the increasing significance of anti-abortion centers, which are often religiously affiliated and publicly funded. (Luthra, 10/29)