It’ll be interesting to watch the outcome in a state that went 56% Trump and 41% Biden, which has two Republican senators, three GOP representatives, and 1 Democrat representative. Take out 5 counties, and mostly just 2 (Douglas and Wyandotte, with the cities of Lawrence and Kansas City), and it’s a deep GOP state
Kansas voters to decide abortion rights in 1st test since Roe v. Wade repeal
Kansas on Tuesday will become the first state to vote on the legality of abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
Voters will not have the option of banning the procedure outright, however. Instead, they’ll vote on a GOP-sponsored initiative known as Amendment 2, which would strip abortion protections from the state constitution. But should a majority of voters support the measure, the Republican-controlled state Legislature is expected to move quickly to restrict or prohibit the procedure.
The initiative is an attempt to overturn a 2019 decision by the Kansas Supreme Court, which ruled 6-1 that the state constitution “enables a woman to make decisions regarding her body, health, family formation, and family life, including the decision whether to continue a pregnancy.”
Due in large part to that decision, Kansas continues to ensure abortion rights despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in late June that access to the procedure is not protected by the federal Constitution. Republican-controlled states bordering Kansas, such as Oklahoma and Missouri, now have near-total bans in place.
“Despite”? No, because the SCOTUS ruling put all the decisions in the hands of the states, as the ruling essentially said it wasn’t in the federal Constitution
Political observers from across the country will be paying close attention to how Kansas votes on the issue. Polls show that most Americans want abortion to be legal, and Democrats hope the issue will motivate voters to support their candidates this November.
Legal, perhaps, but, limited. Start mentioning things like late term abortion, taking children across state lines, restricting parental notification, and others, and that support drops quickly. If the GOP was smart, not something we can always count on, they would have been talking about a ban after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the mother’s life (requiring the consent of two doctors). Not a total ban.
Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, an organization opposing the initiative, is running ads noting that the state already has a number of abortion restrictions and warning that the Republican supermajority in the state Legislature may try to ban the procedure outright, including in cases of rape or incest, if the measure succeeds.
Oh, that group doesn’t want constitutional freedom, they’re happy to push for restrictions on many, many other things, they just want unfettered abortion. They call themselves bipartisan, but, most of their money came from Planned Parenthood (why do they get federal funds again?), the ACLU, the very far left Sixteen Thirty Fund, and other far left groups from outside the state.
Now, we’ll wait for the results tonight.
