The US Supreme Court on Friday voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 50-year-old precedent that protected abortion rights in the US. While the abortion rights debate consumed the nation, voters had a choice to make. Should their vote be based on what their candidate says about abortion rights?

Multiple Democratic party leaders, including President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, urged Americans to put critical issues like reproductive rights and gun violence on the ballot in the upcoming electoral season.

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Striking change was seen in the state of Colorado, where the primary elections were held on Tuesday, just days after Roe v. Wade was overturned. 

Businessman Joe O’Dea was contesting the GOP primary in Colorado for the US Senate, an election he eventually won. He became the only abortion-rights-supporting Republican in the nation to win a statewide primary this year. If he wins the general elections in November, he will then become one of three Republican Senators, and the first male, who speak in favour of abortion rights.

He said he backs a ban on late-term abortions and government funding of abortions but that the decision to terminate a pregnancy in the initial months is “between a person and their God.”

Democrats had spent at least $2.5 million on ads designed to boost O’Dea’s opponent by promoting, among other things, that he was “too conservative” for backing a complete abortion ban.

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O’Dea beat back a stiff challenge from state Rep. Ron Hanks, a Trump loyalist who opposed abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother.

The main fight for boosting or limiting abortion rights in the US will be centered in major swing states in the remaining primaries, and the midterms in November. Georgia, Pennsylvania and Colorado are on the list.