In 1970, three years before the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision, voters in Washington State legalized abortion. Referendum 20, as it was called, did require that women reside in the state for 90 days and get the permission of their husband before getting an abortion.
Referendum 20 passed with 56 percent of the popular vote. And it was not the only time voters in Washington State took up the abortion issue.
In the early 1990's, just like today, abortion rights supporters were worried that an increasingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. The activists were unsuccessful in their attempt to get the state legislature to put the guarantees of Roe v. Wade into state law. So, they gathered the necessary signatures to put Initiative 120 on the ballot.
It passed, just barely, with a little over 50 percent of the vote.
