Kansas voters sent a resounding message Tuesday about their desire to protect abortion rights, rejecting a ballot measure in a conservative state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement that would have allowed the Republican-controlled legislature to tighten restrictions or prohibit the procedure. .
It was the first test of voter sentiment after the US Supreme Court’s decision in June struck down the constitutional right to abortion, providing an unexpected result with potential implications for the upcoming midterm elections.
Anti-abortion lawmakers wanted the vote to coincide with the state’s August primary, which has seen twice as many Republicans vote as Democrats in the decade leading up to Tuesday’s election.
The move backfired. With most votes counted, they prevailed by roughly 20 percentage points, with turnout approaching what is typical of a fall gubernatorial election.
Although it was only one state, it was a big win for abortion rights advocates and also provided some hope for Democrats looking to mobilize voters for November’s midterm elections.
Tonight, Kansans used their voices to protect women’s right to choose and access reproductive health care.
It’s an important victory for Kansas, but also for all Americans who believe women should be able to make their own health care decisions without government interference.
—@POTUS
“This vote makes clear what we know: A majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should have the right to make their own health care decisions,” he said. President Joe Biden in a statement.
After calling on Congress to “reinstate Roe’s protections” into federal law, Biden added: “And the American people must continue to use their voices to protect women’s right to health care, including abortion”.
Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday aimed in part at making it easier for women seeking abortions to travel interstate to access the procedure.
He said it builds on the executive order he signed last month that created a federal task force on reproductive care.
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Historically strong anti-abortion support
The vote provided a warning to Republicans who had celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling and were moving quickly with abortion bans or near-bans in nearly half of the states.
The “Summer of Mercy” anti-abortion protests in 1991 inspired abortion opponents to take over the Kansas Republican Party and make the legislature more conservative. Also, Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was murdered in Wichita in 2009 by an anti-abortion extremist.
“Kansans roundly rejected anti-abortion politicians’ attempts to create a reproductive police state,” said Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of United for Reproductive & Gender Equity. “Today’s vote was a powerful rebuke and promise of the growing resistance.”
Olivia Lemmon listens Tuesday night in Overland Park, Kan., as organizers address the crowd at an election watch party for Value Them Both, a group in favor of a constitutional amendment that would remove protections against abortion of the Kansas constitution. (Charlie Riedel/The Associated Press)
The proposed amendment to the Kansas constitution would have added language indicating that it does not grant the right to abortion. A 2019 state Supreme Court decision declared access to abortion a “fundamental” right under the state’s Bill of Rights, preventing a ban and potentially thwarting legislative efforts to enact new restrictions .
The referendum was closely watched as a barometer of liberal and moderate voters’ anger at the Supreme Court ruling that struck down abortion rights nationwide. In Kansas, abortion opponents would not say what legislation they would pursue if the amendment passed and dragged when opponents predicted it would lead to a ban.
Mallory Carroll, spokeswoman for the national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called the vote “a huge disappointment” for the movement. He added that after the US Supreme Court’s ruling, “We must work exponentially harder to achieve and maintain protections for unborn children and their mothers.”
“I want him to have the same rights”
The turnout at the polls Tuesday was not typical of the Kansas primary, especially as tens of thousands of unaffiliated voters cast ballots.
Kristy Winter, 52, a Kansas City-area teacher and unaffiliated voter, voted against the measure and took her 16-year-old daughter with her to her polling place.
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“I want her to have the same right to do whatever she thinks is necessary, especially in the case of rape or incest,” she said. “I want her to have the same rights that my mother has had most of her life.”
Opponents of the measure predicted that anti-abortion groups and lawmakers behind the measure would quickly push for an abortion ban if voters approved it. Before the vote, supporters of the measure declined to say whether they would pursue a ban.
A 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision protecting abortion rights blocked a law banning the most common second-trimester procedure, and another law imposing special health regulations on abortion providers is also on hold.
The vote is the start of what could be a long series of legal battles unfolding where state lawmakers are more conservative on abortion than citizens, governors or courts.
Kentucky will vote in November on whether to add similar language to Kansas’ proposed amendment to its state constitution, while Vermont will decide in November whether to add an abortion rights provision to its constitution.
In addition, the US Department of Justice sued Idaho on Tuesday over its statute that criminalizes abortion, making anyone who performs or attempts to perform an abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison.
Attorney General Merrick Garland argued that it violates federal law that requires doctors to provide pregnant women with medically necessary treatment that could include abortion.