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National

US midterm election results: Georgia heads to a runoff as Senate hangs in the balance

Republicans are likely to take back control of the House of Representatives, while control of the Senate still hangs in the balance.

Here's the current state of play: 

  • Republicans need a net gain of five seats to control the House of Representatives and just one seat to win back the Senate
  • The remaining undecided senate races include Alaska, Nevada and Arizona
  • Exactly who will win in Alaska's US Senate contest isn’t clear, but it will be a Republican, with Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka and incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski in a tight race with neither on track to win a majority. It means the race will proceed to ranked choice voting later this month.
  • In Georgia, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker will face a runoff in December after neither reached a majority. A runoff means they run the election again but with just two people in the race
  • Abortion rights supporters have won in four states where access was on the ballot, in Michigan, California, Vermont and Kentucky

House overall

Senate overall

Undecided senate races

Abortion and reproductive rights

Abortion rights supporters won in the four states where access was on the ballot, enshrining it into the state constitutions in blue California and Vermont, battleground Michigan, and deep-red Kentucky.

California already had passed several measures aimed at easing access to abortion and set aside millions of taxpayer dollars to help pay for some out-of-state abortion travel.

However, voters have now approved language that would explicitly guarantee access to abortion and contraception in the state's constitution.

In Vermont, the reproductive-rights question came after a law was passed in 2019, guaranteeing reproductive rights, including becoming pregnant and having access to birth control.

Supporters with the Reproductive Liberty Ballot Committee said the overturning of Roe v Wade meant state-level protections were "vital to safeguarding access to reproductive health care".

In Michigan, supporters of the push to protect abortion rights collected more signatures than any other ballot initiative in state history to get it before the voters.

It puts a definitive end to a 1931 ban on abortion that had been blocked in court but could have been revived.

Kentucky’s election outcome doesn't lift its ban, which does not include exceptions for rape and incest, but it means a legal battle over the law will keep playing out.

The ban currently faces a legal challenge before that state's Supreme Court, and the amendment's rejection leaves open the possibility that the court could declare abortion a state right.

Meanwhile in Montana, it's too early to determine the result of a ballot measure to create criminal penalties for health care providers unless they do everything "medically appropriate and reasonable" to save the life of a baby after birth, including the rare possibility of birth after an attempted abortion.

ABC/AP

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