(Kansas) voters block efforts to strip abortion protections from state constitution now
The conservative state voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to reject an amendment that would have allowed the state legislature to ban the measure.
Abortion rights activists march around the Capitol in Topeka, Kan.
Abortion rights activists march around the Capitol in Topeka, Kansas, demanding the repeal of the proposed constitutional amendment, July 30 | Alice Olsten/Politico.
OVERLAND PARK, Kansas - Abortion rights forces won a surprise victory in Kansas on Tuesday when voters rejected an amendment that would have allowed the state legislature to ban the procedure.
The vote, which comes just six weeks after the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, means Kansas will remain one of the few red states where widespread abortion is possible. It also offers hope for abortion rights supporters who are betting on ballot initiatives in other conservative states to regain or maintain access to the procedure.
Emily Wells, president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which covers Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, said seeing the effects of abortion bans recently in force in nearly a dozen states made the case concrete for Kansas and prompted them to vote "no."
"This level of government overreach - literally interfering with decisions that doctor and patient make together - resonated with people in Kansas," she said. "It's a scary moment to think that you or a loved one might be in a situation where it's not up to you or your provider about what care you can get and instead it's up to the government and what they think you deserve."
Turnout in the primaries also rose above usual levels on Tuesday, and in some counties it was closer to the turnout normally seen in a presidential election. More than 900,000 people voted, and 59 percent of them voted against the amendmenT.
In-person early voting, which tends to favor Democrats, was nearly 250 percent higher than the last primary midterm election in 2018, when both Democrats and Republicans were vying for state governors, while the number of mail-in ballots more than doubled.
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The No campaign also outperformed somewhat conservative districts - such as in Shawnee County in the eastern part of the state - coming in at several points ahead of President Joe Biden's results there in 2020.
At an abortion rights group watch party in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, supporters cheered, cried, jumped and hugged each other tightly as new waves of votes were counted in their favour. Purple-haired teens in haircuts mingle with older men and women in suits in a hotel ballroom. A woman holds a Ruth Bader Ginsburg doll as she follows the results.
Abortion rights groups across the country have also applauded results that see the defeat of the Kansas referendum as a blueprint for future efforts in cities and states across the country. The vote also challenged the narrative that the abortion issue is a greater stimulus for conservative voters, and may signal a warning to Republican lawmakers across the country that Roe's decision could generate significant backlash over the coming months and years.
"Reproductive freedom is a winning cause, now and in November," Minnie Temarago, NARAL's president for pro-choice America, said in a statement. "Anti-choice lawmakers take note: Voters have spoken out, and will come out at the polls to oppose efforts to restrict reproductive freedom."
The decision means that abortion clinics in the state can continue to serve not only Kansas but also patients from Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and other states that banned the procedure after Roe fell, many of whom have traveled to Kansas in recent weeks. The anti-abortion campaign has captured the trend, warning in advertisements that the state will become an "abortion destination" like California if the amendment fails.
Assessing them both, an umbrella group of anti-abortionists who lobbied for the amendment, called the decision a "temporary setback."
"Our dedicated fight to value women and children is far from over," they said in a statement Tuesday night. "We will be back."
The referendum result shocked the state in particular because the pro-amendment campaign had some structural advantages as Tuesday approached.
They have been ahead in recent polls
Not only was Kansas a solid red state that voted twice for President Donald Trump, but also the vast majority of the Republican legislature decided to schedule voting in the primaries rather than the general election. Turnout is usually much lower in August and favors Republicans who have more competitive primaries than Democrats in Kansas. And many college students, who tend to progress further, spend their summer vacation.
Student activists who had been working to roll back the amendment said they were more excited by what they saw as a disingenuous attempt to suppress their voices.
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