Kansas residents have voted against lawmakers' efforts to eliminate the state's abortion protections after the Supreme Court's overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade.
Voters opposed the amendment that would have allowed lawmakers to regulate abortion in the region. The vote on Tuesday means that Kansas has become the first state in the United States to vote on an abortion-related issue since the Supreme Court's decision.
Abortion Ban Amendment
The constitutional amendment, which was supported by a campaign named Value Them Both, would have given elected representatives the ability to pass legislation regulating abortion in Kansas. The process has been restricted after the state's Supreme Court previously found the 1859 Kansas Constitution grants a "natural right" to abortion.
The Kansas Supreme Court struck down a ban in 2019 on surgical abortions in a 6-1 decision, ruling that the state's constitution protected women's choice to engage in that activity as a "right." Furthermore, the court ruled that the state constitution incorporated language from the Declaration of Independence that recognized that certain rights predated the country, as per Fox News.
The court said that the Declaration's "natural, inalienable rights" included "personal autonomy," which covered decisions regarding abortion. The majority opinion read that the particular right allows a woman to make her own decisions regarding her body, health, family formation, and family life. These are all decisions that can include whether to continue a pregnancy or get an abortion.
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Prior to Tuesday's results, supporters and coalitions in favor of the amendment faced opposition on a local and national level. This came with out-of-state donors and pro-choice groups spending millions to protect abortion in the state.
According to the Washington Post, the vote results mark a major victory for abortion rights following the Supreme Court's ruling on Roe v. Wade. Despite being traditionally a conservative state, Kansas' vote on abortion rights bolsters Democrats' hopes that the historic ruling will animate voters in an otherwise difficult election year for the left.
Victory for Abortion Advocates
Furthermore, the vote signals that abortion is an energizing issue that could affect turnout in the November midterm elections. The question that was presented to Kansas voters was whether abortion protections should be stripped from the state constitution.
After 90% of the votes were counted, 60% of voters wanted to maintain those abortion protections compared with only 40% who wanted to remove them. The turnout for the Tuesday primary election far exceeded other contests in recent years, with roughly 900,000 Kansan residents voting. It is near twice as many as the 473,438 who turned out in the 2018 primary election.
Abortion rights advocates immediately pointed to the Kansas abortion vote as evidence that Americans are angry about the efforts to roll back women's rights in the country. In a statement, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju said, "At a time when reproductive freedom is under unprecedented threat across the country, Kansans said loud and clear at the ballot box: 'We've had enough.'"
A similar constitutional amendment is on the ballot this November in Kentucky, which is currently enforcing a total abortion ban on its residents. Montana residents will later vote on whether to grant legal rights for infants "born alive after an abortion," 19th News reported.
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