It was the first test of voter sentiment since the US Supreme Court’s ruling in June overturned 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 primaries, in which twice as many Republicans as Democrats had voted in the decade leading up to Tuesday’s election. The move failed. With most of the votes counted, they won by about 20 percentage points, with turnout approaching what is typical for fall gubernatorial elections. While it was just one state, it was a major victory for abortion rights advocates and also provided some hope for Democrats trying 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 every American who believes that women should be able to make their own health 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,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. After calling on Congress to “restore the protections of Roe” to 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 will sign an executive order on Wednesday aimed in part at making it easier for women seeking abortions to travel between states to access the procedure. The current 11:08 PM US restrictions on abortion that create uncertainty about abortion care; Abortion restrictions in the US lead to medical dilemmas about abortions as doctors and patients weigh the risk of criminal penalties against the risks of curtailing care. We speak with high-risk female Dr. Erika Werner. and law professor Kimberly Matherson.
Strong anti-abortion support historically
The vote provided a warning to Republicans who had celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision and were moving quickly with abortion bans or near-bans in nearly half the states. The 1991 Summer of Mercy anti-abortion protests inspired abortion opponents to take over the Kansas Republican Party and make the legislature more conservative. Also, Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas abortion provider, was murdered in Wichita in 2009 by an anti-abortion extremist. “Canes has boldly rejected the efforts of anti-abortion politicians to create a reproductive police state,” said Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity. “Today’s vote was a powerful rebuke and a promise of 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 removing abortion protections from the Kansas constitution. (Charlie Riedel/The Associated Press) The proposed amendment to the Kansas constitution would have added language that would have said it did not grant the right to an abortion. A 2019 state Supreme Court ruling declared access to abortion a “fundamental” right under the state’s Bill of Rights, preventing a ban and potentially blocking legislative efforts to enact new restrictions. The referendum was closely watched as a barometer of anger among liberal and moderate voters over the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the nation’s right to abortion. In Kansas, abortion opponents would not say what legislation they would pursue if the amendment were to pass and was brought up when opponents predicted it would lead to a ban. Mallory Carroll, spokeswoman for the national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, described the vote as “a huge disappointment” for the movement. He added that following the US Supreme Court’s decision, “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 electorate in Tuesday’s vote was not typical for a Kansas primary, particularly because tens of thousands of absentee voters cast ballots. Kristy Winter, 52, a Kansas City-area teacher and non-voter, voted against the measure and brought her 16-year-old daughter with her to her polling place. Front Burner29:47 How safe are abortion rights in Canada? The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed abortion constitutional protection in the country for nearly 50 years, raises questions about whether something similar could happen here. Canada has its own historic Supreme Court decision protecting abortion rights: R. vs. Morgentaler. Still standing. But is it iron? Or could that be overturned as well? Today on Front Burner, we explore the history of abortion rights in Canada, how protected they really are, and how influential the anti-abortion movement is here. We speak with Kelly Gordon, assistant professor at McGill University and co-author of The Changing Voice of the Anti-Abortion Movement: The Rise of Pro-Woman Rhetoric in Canada and the United States. “I want her to have the same right to do what she deems necessary, especially in the case of rape or incest,” she said. “I want her to have the same rights that my mother 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 seek a ban. A 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling protecting abortion rights blocked a law that would have banned the more common second-trimester procedure, and another law imposing special health regulations on abortion providers is also pending. The vote is the start of a long series of legal battles taking place where state lawmakers are more conservative on abortion than citizens, governors or courts. Kentucky will vote in November on whether to add language similar to Kansas’ proposed amendment to its constitution, while Vermont will decide in November whether to add an abortion rights provision to its constitution. Also, 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 conflicts of law that require doctors to provide pregnant women with medically necessary treatment that could include an abortion.
