Analysts were quick to call the result a setback for the anti-abortion movement, but activists and experts say it also amounts to a rejection of the Catholic Church hierarchy, which had spent huge sums of money to support the amendment’s passage. The vote may also hint at a growing backlash against the church’s involvement in the nation’s abortion debate — particularly among Catholics themselves. Kansan strongly rejects amendment aimed at limiting abortion rights In the wake of the vote, Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Nauman, who has publicly supported passage of the amendment, issued a statement Wednesday expressing regret at 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 whose failure to clearly report the true nature of the amendment served to advance the industry’s cause. abortion,” Naumann wrote. Naumann’s archdiocese and other Catholic organizations also spent millions, however, representing the single largest donor base for the pro-amendment umbrella group known as the “Value Them Both” campaign. According to financial disclosures and media reports, the Archdiocese of Kansas City spent about $2.45 million on the effort this year, with the Catholic dioceses of Wichita and Salina together spending an additional $600,000 or more. Some individual Catholic parishes across the state participated, as did the Kansas Catholic Conference, an advocacy group affiliated with the state’s bishops, which reportedly spent $100,000. Separately, the conservative advocacy group CatholicVote raised about $500,000 for the pro-amendment Do Right PAC, according to the Flatland news outlet. Kansas nuns oppose state abortion amendment, challenge archbishop It remains to be seen which side raised or spent more money, though opponents of the amendment also enjoyed significant donations from liberal groups like NARAL Pro-Choice America and the American Civil Liberties Union. But these mostly secular groups didn’t shy away from faith: In an ad that aired in Kansans, a woman talked about her opposition to the amendment from the perspective of a staunch Catholic. “Growing up Catholic, we didn’t talk about abortion,” the woman says. “But now it’s on the ballot and we can no longer ignore it.” 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 bishop-sponsored campaigns. The church officially condemns abortion, but U.S. Catholics, who generally support legal abortion, have become more liberal on the issue over time: According to a recent PRRI poll, the percentage of white Catholics who believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases jumped from 53 percent in October 2010 to 64 percent in June this year. The shift among Hispanic Catholics was even more dramatic, from 51 percent in 2010 to 75 percent in June. “The bishops were so focused on the image of abortion legislation that they failed to step back and see the complication of criminalizing abortion and what that means — especially for vulnerable, non-white, non-wealthy communities,” Imperatori-Lee said. . . “If this is what the bishops are going to do, if this was their plan for a ‘meta-Roeworld, then the Catholics will be very disappointed.” Chuck Weber, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, defended his group’s involvement in the Value Them Both campaign. “I’m not apologizing for our defense,” he said in an interview. Pope Francis says ‘door is open’ to possible retirement as he slows down Weber lamented the heightened tensions caused by the abortion debate in the state — abortion rights protesters were threatened with arrest and a Catholic church in Overland Park was defaced — but pointed out that bishops have lobbied on issues other than abortions in the past. Congress, he said, was among those who pushed state lawmakers this year to extend Medicaid coverage for new mothers from two months to 12 months. Weber also suggested that the bishops would fund campaigns on similar issues if they were put to a vote, as in the referendum on the amendment. Even so, Weber acknowledged that efforts to communicate his group’s broader agenda to everyday Catholics have failed. “I have to do a better job of letting people know that the issue of abortion is not really the primary point of our advocacy at the state capitol or in Washington, D.C.,” he said. One organization that financially skipped the battle over the Kansas amendment was Catholics for Choice, which supports abortion access. The team didn’t spend money in Kansas in part because, according to captain Jamie Manson, it didn’t need to. “Yesterday’s vote in Kansas shows us the power of pro-choice people of faith against the power, money and influence of the Catholic hierarchy,” Manson said in a statement. He added: “I look forward to more David vs. Goliath victories ahead.” Misleading Kansas abortion texts linked to Republican-aligned company 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 amounted to an act of contempt against the local bishops. “A church sign said: ‘Jesus trusted women. And us,” the monks’ letter read. The sisters went on to bemoan the damage caused by restrictive abortion bans passed in other states and noted that the amendment’s supporters have focused resources mostly on abortion bans rather than legislation that would help mothers who bring children to life. , such as “health care, parental leave, Medicaid and other support 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 “courageous.” Whether it had a broad impact or not, Sebelius said, she was reminded of when the nuns spoke out in favor of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which defied the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ opposition to the bill and was credited with paving the way for its final passage. With this week’s vote, “I have no doubt that the nuns’ statement in Kansas made a difference to women who follow what the church was saying and what they were promoting — and they listened to the nuns instead,” Sebelius said. The Kansas vote suggests that the bishops, having won a long-awaited Supreme Court victory in the reversal Roe v. Wademay now be fighting uphill battles in many states, with uneven support from a rank-and-file who would rather see them invest money for the church elsewhere. “That money could do a lot of good — diapers and formula,” Imperatori-Lee said. — Religion News Service
