Kansas

A ballot measure that would have stripped abortion protections from the state's constitution resoundingly failed in Kansas Tuesday night in a major victory ...

Ahead of the primary, abortion-rights advocates I spoke with were optimistic that the constitutional amendment would fail. “[The conservative legislature] wanted this to be among a small group of voters who generally lean conservative and have more competitive primaries in Kansas. But here we are, and people know what’s on the ballot and I think they know what’s at stake,” Emily Wales, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said in an interview. It has been shocking to many people,” Kelly Hall, the executive director of the Fairness Project, a group that campaigns for progressive ballot initiatives, said in an interview. Instead, Kansans delivered their clear support for abortion protections in the state — “a sign of just how unpopular overturning Roe v. On Tuesday night, Kansans were the first to take abortion rights to the ballot box since the fall of Roe v. Wade, and they resoundingly voted against removing the right to abortion from the state constitution.

The Kansas ballot initiative is viewed as a bellwether for the impact of the Supreme Court's abortion decision on the midterm elections this fall.

Kansas is the first state in a handful in which voters will have their say on abortion rights in the midterms. According to the CBS News Battleground Tracker, abortion is as an important an issue as the economy and inflation to women under 50. "We have seen the devastation caused by a loss of access to abortion in neighboring states and tonight, Kansans saw through the deception of anti-abortion interests to ensure people in their state retained their rights." In Kansas, CBS News projects that a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would eliminate the constitutional right to an abortion has been defeated. The Kansas legislature would not be able to ban or enact further restrictions on abortion without a constitutional amendment. Wade, leaving it to states to determine abortion access, the issue appeared on a state ballot.

Tuesday saw some of the last remaining major party primaries of 2022. The headline event of the night wasn't a primary, however: It was a ballot measure in ...

(Trump also helps his win percentage by endorsing a lot of incumbents who don’t have significant challengers, and has also taken to last-minute endorsements for solid leaders in polls.) Yet candidates continue to beg for his endorsement, and in practical terms, that means that a lot of Republican candidates are repeating Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election. Most notably, disgraced former Governor Eric Greitens lost his bid to become the nominee for US Senate in Missouri. State Attorney General Eric Schmitt defeated Greitens, who might have lost even in that solidly Republican state, which will now be considered safe for the party. That’s not always been the case, and it remains to be seen whether it makes any difference. Of the remaining seven, four have chosen to retire, one won, one lost and one — perhaps the most prominent, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming — faces Republican voters later this month. It’s also hard to say whether the Kansas result predicts much about November. Democrats will point to the size of the victory — close to 20 percentage points — and the huge turnout, especially among Democrats, in a Republican state. Meanwhile, there were plenty of party primaries between candidates on Tuesday. Political scientist Jake Grumbach tweeted a reminder of why these are so important: “Pressure in primaries (not just voting but also $, endorsements, etc.), in large part, is the mechanism by which party position change happens.

In a conference room at the Sheraton in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, people screamed, whooped, cheered and cried as a vote to protect abortion ...

“It will be interesting for other states to watch this, and see this is not a partisan issue,” she said. “But we were close in a lot of rural areas and that really made the difference – I’m just so grateful,” she said. “I feel really good right now,” said Leslie Butsch with tears in her eyes already at 8.30pm. She was watching as the vote in Johnson county first showed signs of leaning heavily towards no, after weeks of spending her evenings knocking on doors there. “We’re in the lead, and no is better than yes!” a young girl said to her mother, from Missouri. The two had been canvassing together for weeks. Vandals also spray-painted the walls of a Catholic church weeks earlier, with the phrase “My body, my choice.” James Quigley, 72, a retired doctor and a Republican from Johnson county sat on his own drinking a glass of white wine after hearing the news.

The results were announced surprisingly early on Tuesday night: voters in Kansas had rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have endangered ...

There is a big difference between asking people to weigh in on an issue and asking them to weigh in on a candidate who embodies a range of issue positions. Of particular note is that in every single county, the results on the amendment question were to the left of the 2020 results. When you are voting on a governor or a senator, you’re voting on their support for or opposition to abortion — and a galaxy of other things. Some voters will absolutely turn out to shift elected leadership toward protection of abortion — but many will be motivated to turn out for other reasons. Are voters going to be energized to turn out to vote for a random Democratic House candidate simply to backstop abortion rights? The overturning of Roe turned political debates over abortion from one of figuring out the middle ground on how readily available it should be to one over whether it should be available at all, shifting the political response. In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court decision upending Roe, there was no obvious benefit to Democrats in averages of congressional polling. One argument offered in response was that polls weren’t capturing a shift in enthusiasm. (That’s reflected on the graph below, where every county is to the left of the diagonal line. Yes, that Kansas. So, in short order, observers began extrapolating outward to November. The results in this red state, some argued, showed that abortion access was an unqualified political winner for the left. Or, stripping out the double-negative, Kansans voted in support of protecting access to abortion. That’s more than 25 percent more votes than were cast in the state’s Republican and Democratic Senate primaries.

Jill Filipovic writes that the result of the election in Kansas Tuesday night in favor of abortion rights is a huge win and it reflects what most Americans ...

The vote in Kansas reflects this same view: That the question of whether or not women have basic rights to our own internal organs -- whether, as Irish writer Sally Rooney eloquently put it But the fact that a vote happened at all is a sign of our misogynist decline. Its fate in the Senate depends on whether 10 Republicans will join with the Democratic majority to support it there. And yet that is the position that women and others who can get pregnant are now in. No one should see their basic rights subject to the tyranny of the majority. on Monday, the day of the vote, warning, "Women in KS are losing their choice on reproductive rights.

Kansans turn out in force to show that trying to take away abortion rights might not be as popular as some Republicans think.

If only anti-abortion Republicans had known that the same people telling them they don’t want their rights taken away also have the ability to get mad and cast votes. Wade, push candidates to profess support for a federal abortion ban? That was likely before the Kansas primary result, and now it’s both likely and a potentially huge problem for the party. No crossing state lines for abortions! This was not at all how things were supposed to go for anti-abortion Republicans after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. No exceptions for rape or incest!

The Tuesday Kansas primary election included an abortion ballot referendum with two options. Individuals could vote “yes” for a state amendment called Value ...

Because Kansans value both women and children, the constitution of the state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion. The mention of exceptions to abortion rules for rape, incest, and interventions to save the life of a mother also muddy the clarity. But now, Kansans’ votes will start to set the direction of abortion rights in this country.” The unique aspects of this ballot initiative are not a perfect litmus test for the extent to which abortion views will impact the November midterms for state and Congressional candidates, or even what to expect in the abortion ballot initiatives being proposed in at least four other upcoming state elections. GOP state lawmakers have mostly been quiet on what legislative steps they would take if the amendment had passed, but they have attempted to ban abortions at least twice in the last decade. A resounding 44 percent of Kansans are registered Republicans, while just 26 percent are affiliated with Democrats. The roughly 29 percent of Kansans who are unaffiliated voters only were allowed to vote on the ballot measure, and not for Republican or Democrat primary candidates—but many didn’t know that. The question voters were grappling with was fairly simple: Do you want to make it easier for the GOP-led state legislature to enact stricter abortion bans? “Anti-choice Kansas legislators chose this primary ballot on purpose because it was a more favorable environment for them,” says Ryan Stitzlein, the national political director for NARAL Pro-Choice America. “It’s essentially a Republican primary. “This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should have the right to make their own health care decisions.” But what took place in Kansas has demonstrated two revealing factors about abortion politics that are likely to be at play at the ballot box going forward: the ingenuity of the anti-abortion strategy conservatives have spent years crafting, and abortion-rights advocates’ fervor in mobilizing their forces on a state level against the Dobbs v. Individuals could vote “yes” for a state amendment called Value Them Both, asserting there is no constitutional right to an abortion, which would not immediately change the state’s abortion laws, but make it easier for the state’s conservative legislature to pass abortion-restricting bills and bans in the future. Or, voters could opt for “no” on adding the amendment, which would affirm the state’s current abortion laws are explicitly protected by the Kansas constitution.

Democrats celebrated the Kansas vote as a testament to the desire for abortion rights nationwide, even in Republican-held states.

I’m grateful down to my toes for everyone who helped stop this dangerous ballot measure in its tracks.” To many Democrats and analysts, the Kansas vote suggested that an emphasis on abortion rights could pave the way to success in the November midterms. The Kansas vote was the first time abortion rights had been on the ballot since the conservative-dominated supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling which guaranteed the right, in June.

It marked the first statewide vote on abortion access following the Supreme Court ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade. As several states are already set to ...

Whereas six in 10 republican women indicated abortion as a voting priority in February, just 44% do now. In February, half of Democrats indicated abortion as a top midterm voting issue. Voters in Kansas decided to uphold a state constitutional right to abortion in a landslide defeat of an amendment that would repeal the protection.

Abortion rights forces scored an upset victory in Kansas on Tuesday when voters rejected an amendment that would have allowed the state legislature to ban ...

And a 2021 survey conducted by Fort Hays State University found that over 50 percent of Kansans agreed with the statement: “The Kansas government should not place any regulations on the circumstances under which women can get abortions.” “People make a lot of assumptions about Kansas,” said Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), the sole Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, who flipped a previously red district in 2018. “Now I fear they’re going to restrict all abortions again and we’re going to be left back in the Dark Ages.” “This act of desperation won’t stop the voters of Kansas from protecting their constitutional rights and freedom.” Hundreds of volunteers from around the country converged on the state to knock on hundreds of thousands of doors. Not only is Kansas a solidly red state that twice voted for President Donald Trump, but also the supermajority Republican legislature decided to schedule the vote for the primary instead of the general election. The anti-abortion campaign seized on this trend, warning in ads that the state would become an “abortion destination” like California if the amendment failed. Some lawn signs for the “Value Them Both” campaign had NO spray painted over them in black capital letters. The results were also hailed by abortion-rights groups around the country that see the defeat of the Kansas referendum as a blueprint for future efforts in cities and states across the country. “Anti-choice lawmakers take note: The voters have spoken, and they will turn out at the ballot box to oppose efforts to restrict reproductive freedom.” “This level of government overreach — literally interfering in the decisions a physician and patient make together — has resonated with people in Kansas,” she said. Turnout for the primary also soared above usual levels Tuesday, and in some counties was closer to the participation usually seen in a presidential election.

They chose to reject a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the Legislature to ban abortion, and in doing so indicated that they weren't going to ...

The fact that the anti-abortion advocates tried to adopt that language in their ballot proposal tells you a lot. In fact, I would contend that the sneakiness of the whole enterprise backfired. They worded the ballot proposal in an extremely confusing, even misleading, manner.

Les électeurs de cet État conservateur ont rejeté un amendement de la majorité parlementaire conservatrice qui aurait supprimé la garantie du droit à l' ...

Cependant, les défenseurs du droit à l’avortement observent avec anxiété les États voisins du Missouri et de l’Oklahoma, où des restrictions quasi-totales sont imposées. Par exemple, il n’existe pas d’exception à l’interdiction d’avorter en cas de viol ou d’inceste au Missouri. Une dizaine d’États ont déjà banni les avortements sur leur sol. Laure Kelly, la gouverneure du Kansas, est aussi démocrate. Selon une enquête de l’Université d’État Fort Hays réalisée en 2021, moins de 20% des sondés au Kansas étaient d’accord pour dire que l’avortement devrait être illégal, même en cas de viol ou d’inceste. Par ailleurs, la moitié des sondés disait penser que le gouvernement du Kansas ne devrait imposer aucune réglementation sur les circonstances dans lesquelles les femmes peuvent se faire avorter. Les partisans du "oui", en faveur d’une modification de la Constitution, affirment que cela permettrait aux législateurs de réguler l’Interruption volontaire de grossesse (IVG) sans ingérence de la justice. La question soumise au référendum était "Est-ce que la Constitution du Kansas doit être amendée pour enlever les protections du droit à l’avortement ?". Le "non" l’emporte à 58,8%. Les démocrates sont pour beaucoup en faveur du droit à l’avortement tandis que les conservateurs sont en général favorables à au moins quelques restrictions. "Les habitants du Kansas pourront alors s’unir (…) pour parvenir à un consensus", affirme Mackenzie Haddix lors d’un rassemblement le 30 juin.

Dans cet Etat conservateur, le référendum sur l'IVG a penché à 60% en faveur du maintien des droits des femmes. Un espoir pour les démocrates en vue des ...

Joe Biden se pose à nouveau mercredi en défenseur du droit à l'avortement au lendemain d'une victoire pour le droit à l'IVG dans l'État du Kansas.

Celui-ci ordonne au gouvernement d'examiner les moyens d'étendre la couverture médicale des femmes obligées de voyager pour avorter. À l'inverse, les États progressistes cherchent à sacraliser le droit à l'avortement et les électeurs de Californie, Michigan, Nevada et Vermont voteront, à leur tour, cette année sur des mesures protectrices. Les habitants de cet État rural étaient les premiers Américains appelés à se prononcer sur le droit à avorter depuis que la Cour suprême l'a enterré, le 24 juin, et le scrutin avait valeur de test avant les élections de novembre.

Abortion rights activists won a huge victory in the red state of Kansas on Tuesday. Kansans voted overwhelmingly (59% to 41%) to reject an amendment that ...

What's key here is that four years ago, 33% of Kansas primary voters who cast ballots in the major-party primaries did so on the Democratic side. Of all people who voted in a statewide Democratic or Republican primary in Kansas, about 37% cast a ballot in the Democratic primary. The fact that Republicans made up a larger share of the primary vote shouldn't be a surprise given how Republican Kansas is There are going to be a number of states (e.g., Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) where the Democratic and Republican nominees for governor will have very different views on abortion. This means more than 150,000 people likely came out only to vote on the abortion amendment. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 900,000 votes had been counted on the amendment.

Joe Biden se pose à nouveau mercredi en défenseur du droit à l'avortement au lendemain d'une victoire pour le droit à l'IVG dans le très conservateur État ...

Celui-ci ordonne au gouvernement d’examiner les moyens d’étendre la couverture médicale des femmes obligées de voyager pour avorter. A l’inverse, les États progressistes cherchent à sacraliser le droit à l’avortement et les électeurs de Californie, Michigan, Nevada et Vermont voteront, à leur tour, cette année sur des mesures protectrices. Les habitants de cet état rural étaient les premiers Américains appelés à se prononcer sur le droit à avorter depuis que la Cour suprême l’a enterré, le 24 juin, et le scrutin avait valeur de test avant les élections de novembre.

Des militantes pour le droit à l'avortement célèbrent les résultats du référendum de mardi à Overland Park, au Kansas. (Washington) Joe Biden s'est à nouveau ...

Celui-ci ordonne au gouvernement d’examiner les moyens d’étendre la couverture médicale des femmes obligées de voyager pour avorter. À l’inverse, les États progressistes cherchent à sacraliser le droit à l’avortement et les électeurs de Californie, Michigan, Nevada et Vermont voteront, à leur tour, cette année sur des mesures protectrices. Les habitants de cet État rural étaient les premiers Américains appelés à se prononcer sur le droit à avorter depuis que la Cour suprême l’a enterré, le 24 juin, et le scrutin avait valeur de test avant les élections de novembre.

Kansans voted resoundingly against an amendment that would have permitted the state's Republican-controlled legislature to ban abortion without exceptions. I ...

The hope of abortion-rights supporters is that this result will put some fear into Republican legislators who haven’t yet enacted these laws, that maybe it’ll slow them down or cause them at the very least not to go quite as far as they might have before this result. They ran a variety of ads, but one of the ads they ran, especially in conservative areas, was really a libertarian-style message, calling the amendment a pathway to a government mandate. Russell: In Michigan, abortion-rights activists are likely to succeed in putting an abortion question on the ballot in November. That’s a very competitive state; there’s a huge governor’s race there, with Democrat Gretchen Whitmer running for reelection. Russell Berman: The surprise in this referendum was how big of a win it was for the abortion-rights side and how big of a defeat it was for the anti-abortion side. Four years of Latin were required, and a choice between French and German … Together with nearly everyone else, I had opted for French. German, especially for a Jewish student in 1942, was a sinister tongue contaminated by its criminal speakers, repellent in its very substance. It included images of the vaccine and mask mandates that, especially in conservative areas, became quite unpopular during the height of the pandemic. Even when I was interviewing people yesterday, before the polls closed, I was asking them to respond to various scenarios—a close win for the abortion-rights side, a close defeat or a decisive defeat for the abortion-rights side. This was a referendum on a confusingly worded ballot question. That was the hope, and even, among some, the assumption. I didn’t even ask about the scenario that we actually saw, which was essentially a landslide rejection of the amendment and a victory for the abortion-rights side. Democrats had been looking at the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Kansans voted resoundingly against an amendment that would have permitted the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to ban abortion without exceptions.

More than 900,000 Kansans showed up to the polls to vote on the state's abortion referendum. That's the biggest turnout for a primary election in the state's ...

The referendum in particular seems to have brought out women, who are considered to be most affected by abortion laws. Known as “Value Them Both,” the amendment would have removed constitutional protections for abortion that came from a 2019 ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court. Nearly 60 percent of those Kansas voters this year voted against the amendment — or in favor of abortion rights — while about 40 percent voted for it. In the last general election, Kansas, as it has done for decades, went for the Republican candidate. What’s perhaps most surprising about the referendum vote is that it happened in a very Republican state. That number is closer to what we’d expect to see in a general election turnout, which is always vastly higher than primaries. On Tuesday, an unprecedented number of Kansans voted against a constitutional amendment that would have allowed lawmakers to end abortion protections.

The people of Kansas spoke and now the rest of the country has to listen. Signs in favor and against the Kansas Constitutional Amendment ...

“The lesson that pro-life candidates need to take away from this is that you must drive the contrast and go on offense,” she said. “I think people are going to their polling place and thinking about how they’re not very happy with the state of our economy.” “The conservative Republicans in the state legislature really missed an opportunity when they said this had to be in the primary this year and not the general election back in 2020,” he said. Everyone will have to pick and choose and that’s one we will definitely pick.” “The ‘no’ campaign’s rhetoric about government overreach and intrusion into personal lives was very successful,” he told POLITICO. “Meanwhile, a big failure of the ‘yes’ side is that they weren’t able to look credible to the electorate when they said that the amendment wouldn’t lead to a ban on abortion. Celebrities and musicians with ties to the state released videos urging their fans to get to the polls. “We have to prioritize, and I think we’re going to prioritize lawsuits related to chemical abortion,” Hamrick said. Not only did GOP lawmakers choose the wording of the amendment, they scheduled the vote for the August primary election, when turnout is usually lower than during the general election. “Abortion rights supporters now have an opportunity and an obligation to rebuild pro-choice voting coalitions in states where access has been lost or is at risk,” Rachel Sweet with Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, the group that led the fight against the amendment, told reporters Wednesday morning. But we had several examples of anti-abortion activists and legislators talking publicly about wanting a total ban. “Ballot initiatives are a phenomenally powerful tool when there’s a disconnect between the popularity of an issue and what’s being enacted by politicians. No matter where you live, there is hope on the horizon.”

À 47 %, le taux de participation a dépassé les attentes. Le message a porté bien au-delà des lignes de parti habituelles. Le rejet de l'amendement met en ...

L’Indiana affiche toutefois des tendances de plus en plus hostiles au droit à l’avortement. Résultat : la médecin est menacée de poursuites par le procureur de l’État. Le président veut atténuer le « chaos » entraîné par la décision de la Cour suprême. Il a fait allusion mercredi au cas gravissime de cette fillette de 10 ans originaire de l’Ohio qui est tombée enceinte à la suite d’un viol survenu en mai dernier. Le rejet de l’amendement met en évidence la division entre, d’un côté, les voeux et actions des législateurs républicains, et, de l’autre côté, les velléités de la population américaine. Les derniers sondages placent à un peu plus de 60 % le soutien sans équivoque au droit à l’avortement et au choix des femmes en santé reproductive. Ceux-ci tentent du mieux qu’ils peuvent d’assurer une disponibilité accrue de services dans les cliniques qui pratiquent des interruptions de grossesse pour accueillir des Américaines venant d’États interdisant la pratique. Les experts avaient prédit que le Kansas allait suivre les diktats de la Cour suprême des États-Unis et tailler en pièces l’accès à l’avortement enchâssé dans sa Constitution depuis 2019. Wade. Bien qu’on ne puisse tracer une tendance à partir de ce seul soubresaut, si étonnant soit-il, il sera intéressant de voir comment d’autres États pourraient choisir cette formule du référendum, qui vient sonder l’âme de la population.

Aux Etats-Unis, le Kansas choisit le droit à l'avortement : lors d'un référendum, près de 60 pour cent des électeurs ont voté en faveur du maintien de l'IVG ...

«Le référendum au Kansas revêt une importance qui va bien au-delà de cet Etat et de la question de l'avortement. Le Kentucky et le Vermont seront les prochains Etats à soumettre cette année aussi leur population à un référendum pour décider si le droit à l'avortement doit figurer dans leur constitution respective. Suite à la décision de la Cour suprême, le mouvement Pro-Life avait annoncé vouloir demander une interdiction de l'avortement à l'échelle nationale, ce qui nécessiterait une loi du Congrès. Le référendum du Kansas montre qu'il a peu de chance d'y parvenir. Le scrutin du Kansas vient apporter la preuve directe que le jugement de la Cour suprême ne se résume pas nécessairement à une limitation de l'accès à l'avortement, mais peut garantir ce droit par le biais d'un consentement démocratique au niveau des Etats fédéraux.» ... Le référendum au Kansas s'est donc révélé une aubaine pour les Américains et leur donne l'occasion de mener un débat ouvert autour de ce thème. Mais il n'est pas dit que tous les Etats saisiront l'opportunité. Visiblement, il n'est pas forcément si mal que ce soit le peuple qui dispose du pouvoir de régler les questions importantes. «Une nette majorité de citoyens dans cet Etat limitrophe du Texas, de l'Oklahoma et du Mississippi, tous hostiles à l'avortement, veut que le droit à l'IVG reste inscrit dans la Constitution. ... Cela corrobore les analyses des instituts de sondage menées ces dernières années, selon lesquelles une majorité d'Américains serait en faveur d'un droit libéral à l'avortement, et ce quelle que soit leur orientation politique. La crainte se répand qu'une absence de règles documentée numériquement conjuguée à un voyage dans un autre Etat du pays puisse servir de preuve contre les femmes poursuivies pour avortement illégal. Quelle incroyable évolution des choses.

State Rep. Stephanie Clayton reacts during the Kansans for Constitutional Freedom election watch party in Overland Park, Kansas, on August 2, 2022. A version of ...

What more voters are likely to list as a top priority is the economy. It will also feature in key governor's races, including in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and especially in Michigan, where the Democratic governor is fighting to keep her job. The vote was so overwhelming -- more than 58% of Kansas primary voters voted to protect abortion rights -- that it could not have happened without help from Republicans in the red state. In fact, turnout -- more than 900,000 people took part in the primary -- was on the level of recent midterm general elections. conducted July 22-24, a 65% majority said the ruling overturning Roe vs. The Kansas primary question was different, about whether lawmakers should have the power to regulate abortion rights. Where abortion might have less impact as an issue. But abortion is not on most November ballots. , before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. The voters resoundingly said no. Activists who support abortion rights in Michigan have submitted signatures to secure space on the November ballot for an amendment to add protection for abortion rights to the state's constitution and erase a 1931 abortion ban The result is a ray of hope for Democrats. They want to use the issue of abortion to drive voters to the polls in November, when control of the House and Senate is on the line.

While the battle to ban abortion in Kansas may have been lost, the fight continues across the US.

In the same poll, 51% said they are likely to vote for a congressional candidate who would restore abortion rights, while 36% said they would deliberately vote against a candidate who had that intent. Will voters support the Supreme Court ruling that abortion isn't a guaranteed right? In Kentucky, the constitution does not guarantee the right to abortion, but state courts have played ping-pong with the state's strict abortion ban. That's what Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has done so far, where a ban on most abortions after 15 weeks has been volleyed back and forth and is heading for the state's Supreme Court. When the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, it gave individual states the authority to ban abortion. But when it came down to it, almost 60% voted against the change, a resounding victory for pro-choice advocates.

Even in conservative Kansas, abortion rights are popular. The Democrats need to stop shying away from abortion and make it a campaign issue.

Vote YES to protect women’s health.” A yes vote on the constitutional amendment would have been a vote against abortion rights. But the results in Kansas suggest that he should be. It’s time for the Democratic party to join them. In contrast to the US supreme court, the Kansas court rejected the idea that civil rights were frozen in time at the time of the document’s ratification; instead, they extended those equal rights to women. A municipal ballot measure that aimed to ban abortions after 20 weeks in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, failed by a large margin in an unusually high-turnout election in 2013. With an unexpectedly large turnout and a huge margin, Kansas voters on Tuesday rejected a measure that would have removed the right to an abortion from their state’s constitution. In the days before the election, a Republican-aligned firm in Nevada sent out texts to Kansas voters. “Voting YES on the Amendment will give women a choice. It was the first electoral test of support for abortion rights since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in June, and the results were unambiguous. “Women in Kansas are losing their choice on reproductive rights,” the texts read. When South Dakota passed an abortion ban in 2006, pro-choice advocates managed to collect enough signatures to put the measure to a popular vote. Nearly 60% of voters in the deeply conservative state rejected the anti-abortion measure.

Amending the Kansas Constitution would have allowed officials to place commonsense limits. But the left stepped up to back the abortion industry.

I have dedicated my entire professional life to providing for the health and safety of moms and babies, and I’m not going to let them down now. Finally, I recognize family planning and access to contraception will be as important as ever. While life-affirming medical clinics already outnumber abortion clinics – according to an analysis from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America – we can and will do more to help mothers. There is much work to be done to support moms through those difficult times when they are contemplating abortion and decide instead for life. I urged Kansans to vote “yes” on the Value Them Both Amendment to value the life, health and safety of moms and unborn babies. I want to thank everybody who worked so hard to support this amendment.

Kansas offers no such subsidies at this time. What it does have, however, is a state amendment protecting women's reproductive rights and a populace that just ...