Kansas voters rejected Tuesday a ballot measure to remove abortion rights from the state constitution, handing a resounding victory to the pro-choice movement in the first popular vote on the issue since the fall of Roe v. Wade.
With 96.7% of the vote counted, the No State Right to Abortion amendment was behind by 58.8% to 41.2%, marking a disappointing defeat for pro-life advocates and a pivotal win for Planned Parenthood and pro-choice groups.
“I’ve seen enough: in a huge victory for the pro-choice side, the Kansas constitutional amendment to remove protections of abortion rights fails,” tweeted Dave Wasserman, House editor for the Cook Political Report.
The amendment, also called Value Them Both, would have affirmed that “there is no Kansas constitutional right to abortion,” overriding a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision holding that the state constitution guaranteed the right to “personal autonomy,” including abortion.
If passed, the measure would have cleared the way for the Republican-led legislature to tighten restrictions on abortion.
Women may obtain elective abortions in Kansas up to 20 weeks’ gestation, or 22 weeks after their last menstrual cycle, and then afterward when the woman’s health is severely compromised.
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The state also requires parental consent for minors, pre-procedure ultrasounds, counseling, and a 24-hour waiting period.
The Kansas outcome comes as an early barometer of the broader electorate’s thinking on the emotional issue and is somewhat surprising given the state’s conservative bent. (Among other measures, it hasn’t elected a Democratic U.S. senator since before World War II and only two others since it became a state in 1860.)
Democrats hope the court’s ruling could bolster their odds of defending the House and Senate in what is otherwise shaping up to be a tough election year.
Supporters of the effort were mum about whether they would pursue an outright abortion ban if the referendum passed.
Emiliana Guereca, Women’s March Action founder and executive director, called the vote “the start of winning the battle for reproductive rights, which we will do, state by state.”
The Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in its June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, sending legal decision-making on abortion back to the states for the first time since Roe made it a right under the U.S. Constitution in 1973.
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“The Supreme Court got it wrong and today voters made sure their reproductive rights are protected in Kansas,” Ms. Guereca said.
Cecile Richards, former head of Planned Parenthood, called the outcome “an extraordinary victory.”
“I think this shows exactly what we learned over the many years I was at Planned Parenthood, that if you put on the ballot the issue of whether or not people are pregnant should make their decisions about their pregnancies or politicians, overwhelmingly people will vote in favor of people who are pregnant,” she said on MSNBC.
Ms. Richards said it should be a “wake-up call” for Republicans that want to curb abortion access, and put them on defense in elections this November.
“This country does not want to take away the right to safe and legal abortion,” she said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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