Kansas votes to reject constitutional amendment to ban abortion
On Tuesday, August 2, 2022, a ballot initiative was on the ballot in the state of Kansas, pushed by the Value Them Both Coalition, a Christian conservative collective that wants to ban abortion like so many other states with Republican majorities in their state legislatures, many with trigger bans in place, which became law, as soon as the ultra-conservative US Supreme Court overturned Roe Vs Wade.
I am happy to say that Kansas voted NO to the “value them both” constitutional amendment, and it was not even close, final results show an 18% gap between the YES and NO votes. Before the vote, I was concerned that Kansas would be too conservative, and the majority of voters would vote YES to the Kansas constitutional amendment that would pave the way for the GOP majority legislature to ban abortion.
I have to say that the NO campaign did an amazing job, sending out multiple mailers in the final weeks before the vote; we personally received a least a dozen mailers in our mailbox in the past month, compared to just one from the YES campaign. They had people knocking on doors, two people came to our front door, encouraging us to vote NO, and I saw plenty of adverts online across social media.
I think that the Republicans may have screwed up, forcing women to carry a fetus to term, by way of SCOTUS, taking away their bodily autonomy. With the success of the Kansas ballot initiative, I can see a lot of Democratic groups pushing state constitutional amendments to the ballot in states that have already passed abortion bans, many with no exception for rape, incest or the health of the mother.
I’m hoping this will also affect the midterm elections, with the SCOTUS Roe Vs Wade reversal motivating people to come out and vote, maybe for the first time ever. We know that Democrats and progressives outnumber conservatives significantly, but the right wing vote at higher percentages than the left.
With the Supreme Court decision stripping women of their rights to bodily autonomy, I am hopeful that the turnout in November will be high, with many more Democrats voting in the midterms. Literally, your rights are on the ballot, if abortion bans are allowed to stand, Obergefell (marriage equality), Griswold (contraceptives), and even Loving (interracial marriage) could all be on the line.
If the GOP regain control of the US Senate, you can bet the filibuster will be gone, and abortion will be banned federally, despite the SCOTUS state rights rheteric, they’ll uphold, or refuse to hear any challenge to a federal ban. SCOTUS is not nonpartisan, it’s 100% partisan, pushing their religious right agenda.
Do I detect a ray of light in US politics? Surely not.
Happy you got the result you wanted, for now at least. This issue has appeared to have been bothering you for some weeks now.