Aug 2 (Reuters) – Kansas voters on Tuesday rejected an effort to strip abortion protections from the state constitution, a landslide victory for the abortion rights movement in its first election test statewide since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v.
The failure of the amendment in the conservative state raised hopes among Democrats that the abortion rights issue will draw voters to the party in November’s midterm elections, even as they worry about increased inflation
The outcome will also prevent Kansas’ Republican-led legislature from passing severe abortion restrictions in the state, which has become a key abortion access point for America’s heartland.
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“This should be a real wake-up call for abortion opponents,” said Neal Allen, a political science professor at Wichita State University. “When a total ban looks like a possibility, then you’re going to get a lot of people there and you’re going to lose a lot of the more moderate supporters of abortion restrictions.”
Political analysts had expected the Kansas amendment to pass, given that Republicans tend to turn out in larger numbers in the state’s primary elections than Democrats and independents.
But Tuesday’s vote drew a higher-than-expected turnout. With 98% of votes counted, 59% of voters favored preserving abortion rights compared to nearly 41% who supported removing abortion protections from the state constitution, according to Edison Research.
“This is a titanic result for Kansas politics,” Allen said.
The Kansas ballot initiative is the first of several that will ask American voters to weigh in on abortion rights this year. Kentucky, California, Vermont and possibly Michigan will be on the ballot this fall.
The success of the “vote no” campaign in Kansas could provide a model for abortion rights groups looking to harness voter energy after Roe’s reversal, Allen said.
US President Joe Biden joined Democrats across the country in applauding the results on Tuesday.
“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 decisions,” Biden said in a statement
Abortion rights supporters react as early polls show voters reject a state constitutional amendment that would have declared no right to abortion, in a poll watchdog Kansans for Constitutional Freedom in Topeka, Kansas, USA, on August 2, 2022. Evert Nelson/USA Today Network via REUTERS.
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A statewide poll released by Fort Hays State University’s Docking Institute of Public Affairs in February showed that a majority of Kansas residents did not support a total abortion ban.
Sixty percent disagreed that abortion should be completely illegal, and 50.5% said, “Kansas government should not put any regulations on the circumstances under which women can have abortions “.
Kansas Republicans had been pushing for a state constitutional amendment to eliminate abortion rights since 2019, when the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution protected the right to abortion.
As a result of the ruling, Kansas has maintained more lenient policies than other conservative neighbors. The state allows abortion up to 22 weeks of pregnancy with several restrictions, including a mandatory 24-hour waiting period and mandatory parental consent for minors.
HIGH STAKES IN NOVEMBER
Patients travel to Kansas for abortions from Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and other states that have banned the procedure almost entirely since the Supreme Court in June overturned Roe, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion throughout the country.
A spokesman for the Trust Women abortion clinic in Wichita said 60 percent of its abortion patients come from out of state.
Tuesday’s referendum drew national attention and money. The Value Them Both Partnership, which supported the amendment, raised about $4.7 million this year, about two-thirds from regional Catholic dioceses, according to campaign finance data.
Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, the main coalition opposing the amendment, raised about $6.5 million, including more than $1 million from Planned Parenthood groups.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a national anti-abortion group, said it spent $1.4 million to promote the amendment and surveyed 250,000 households in Kansas.
“Tonight’s loss is a huge disappointment to pro-life Kansans and Americans across the country,” said Mallory Carroll, a spokeswoman for the group. “The stakes for the pro-life movement in the upcoming midterm elections could not be higher.”
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Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Osterman
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.