When votes were cast Tuesday night on a proposed amendment to the Kansas state constitution that would eliminate the explicit right to abortion, what was expected to be a close race was surprisingly lopsided: the amendment was resoundingly defeated, 59% to 41%. .
Analysts were quick to cast the result as a setback for the anti-abortion movement, but activists and experts say it also represents a rejection of the Catholic Church hierarchy, which had shelled out massive sums of money in support of the passage of the amendment The vote may also signal a growing backlash against the church’s involvement in the nation’s abortion debate, particularly among Catholics themselves.
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After the vote, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, who publicly supported passage of the amendment, issued a statement Wednesday lamenting its failure.
“We have not been able to overcome the millions spent by the abortion industry to mislead Kansans about the amendment, nor the overwhelming bias of the secular press, the failure to clearly report the true nature of the amendment serve to advance the cause of the abortion industry.” Naumann wrote.
However, Naumann’s archdiocese and other Catholic organizations also spent millions, representing the largest donor base for the pro-amendment umbrella group known as the “Value Both” campaign.
According to financial disclosures and media reports, the Archdiocese of Kansas City spent roughly $2.45 million on the effort this year, and the Catholic dioceses of Wichita and Salina combined spent an additional $600,000 or more. Individual Catholic parishes across the state got involved, as did the Kansas Catholic Conference, an advocacy group linked to the state’s bishops, which reportedly spent $100,000. Separately, the conservative advocacy group CatholicVote raised about $500,000 for the amendment Do Right PAC, according to news outlet Flatland.
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It remains to be seen which side raised or spent more money, though opponents of the amendment also enjoyed large donations from liberal groups like NARAL Pro-Choice America and the American Civil Liberties Union. But these mostly secular groups didn’t stray from the faith: In an ad aired in Kansans, one woman spoke of her opposition to the amendment from the perspective of a Catholic crib.
“Growing up Catholic, we didn’t talk about abortion,” says the woman. “But now it’s on the ballot and we can’t ignore it anymore.”
According to Natalia Imperatori-Lee, chair of the religious studies department at Manhattan College, the ad probably better represents the views of the average Catholic than the campaigns funded by the bishops. The church officially censures abortion, but American Catholics, who generally support legal abortion, have become more liberal on the issue over time: According to a recent PRRI survey, the percentage of white Catholics who believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. it went from 53% in October 2010 to 64% in June of this year. The shift among Hispanic Catholics was even more dramatic, from 51% in 2010 to 75% in June.
“The bishops have been so focused on the idol of abortion legislation that they have not stepped back and seen the complication of criminalizing abortion and what that means, especially for vulnerable communities, not white and not rich,” Imperatori-Lee said. . “If this is what the bishops will do, if this was their plan for a” post-Roeworld, then the Catholics will be very disappointed.”
Chuck Weber, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, defended his group’s involvement with the Value Them Both campaign.
“I don’t apologize one bit for our defense,” he said in an interview.
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Weber lamented heightened tensions over the state’s abortion debate — abortion rights protesters were threatened with arrest and a Catholic church in Overland Park was defaced — but noted that in the past bishops have lobbied on issues other than abortion. The conference, she said, was among those that pushed state lawmakers this year to expand Medicaid coverage for new mothers from two months to 12 months. Weber also suggested that the bishops would fund campaigns around similar issues if they were put to a vote, as in the amendment referendum.
Still, Weber acknowledged that efforts to convey his group’s broader agenda to everyday Catholics have fallen short.
“I have to do a better job of letting people know that the issue of abortion is not really the main point of our advocacy at the state capitol or in Washington, DC,” she said.
One organization that financially jumped into the Kansas amendment battle was Catholics for Choice, which advocates for access to abortion. The group didn’t spend money in Kansas in part because, according to frontman Jamie Manson, it didn’t need to.
“Yesterday’s vote in Kansas shows us the power of pro-choice people of faith in the face of the power, money and influence of the Catholic hierarchy,” Manson said in a statement.
He added: “I’m looking forward to more David vs. Goliath victories ahead.”
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The underdog spirit in the Kansas struggle was embodied by two Catholic nuns who wrote a letter against the amendment, published before the vote, which was an act of defiance against the local bishops.
“A church sign said, ‘Jesus trusted women. So do we,'” the nuns’ letter said. The sisters lamented the harm caused by restrictive abortion bans passed in other states and pointed that supporters of the amendment focused primarily on banning abortion, rather than legislation that would help mothers who carry children to term, such as “health care, leave, Medicaid and other assistance for poor women “.
Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic and former Kansas governor who served as health and human services secretary in the Obama administration, praised the nuns’ letter, calling the sisters “brave.” Whether it had a broad impact or not, Sebelius said, it reminded her of when the nuns spoke out in favor of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which countered opposition from the State Conference of Catholic Bishops United in the bill and is credited with paving the way. for its final step.
With this week’s vote, “I have no doubt that the statement from the nuns in Kansas made a difference to the women who follow what the church has been saying and what they have been promoting, and who listened the nuns,” Sebelius said.
The Kansas vote suggests that the bishops, after winning a long-awaited Supreme Court victory overturning Roe v. Wadenow he may be fighting uphill battles in many states, with uneven support from a base that would rather see them invest church money elsewhere.
“That money could do a lot of good: diapers and formula,” Imperatori-Lee said.
— Religion news service