Republican Kansas rejects abortion ban
Voters in Kansas have soundly rejected an amendment to ban abortion in the state in what is the first electoral test of the public mood since the overturning of Roe v Wade.
In a conservative, reliably Republican state with close ties to the antiabortion movement, voters turned out in large numbers on Wednesday to defeat the amendment.
With most of the vote counted yesterday, the ‘‘no’’ vote against the amendment led by 59% to 41. The result is a clear sign of a political backlash against the Supreme Court ruling in June, which struck down the nationwide right to abortion after almost half a century. It offers hope to pro-choice activists and to the Democrats before the midterm elections in November, where they will make abortion rights central to their campaign.
The party will warn that Republicans will attempt to impose a nationwide ban and roll back other civil liberties if they regain control of Congress.
‘‘The voters in Kansas have spoken loud and clear. We will not tolerate extreme bans on abortion,’’ said Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, which led the effort to defeat the amendment.
The campaign in Kansas was bitterly fought, with both sides pouring millions of dollars into advertising and hundreds of volunteers knocking on doors in the final days. Family members were pitted against each other, underscoring the rift that has opened since the Supreme Court ruling.
There were allegations of dirty tricks after voters received misleading automated text messages on Tuesday suggesting that a ‘‘yes’’ vote on the ballot would protect access to abortion. In fact, the opposite was true.
The state’s main anti-abortion groups and the Kansas Republican Party denied sending the texts, which prompted fury from the ‘‘no’’ campaign.
‘‘The anti-choice movement has been lying to the voters of Kansas for decades,’’ said the former Democratic governor Kathleen Sebelius before the vote. ‘‘This act of desperation won’t stop the voters protecting their constitutional rights and freedom.’’
The result leaves Kansas as one of the few Republican-held states where abortion remains legal. Since Justice Samuel Alito issued the Supreme Court’s ruling in June, declaring that the landmark precedent that had enshrined the nationwide right to abortion since 1973 was ‘‘egregiously wrong from the start’’, 17 Republican states have moved to ban or severely restrict abortion. Others are set to follow.
The ruling has prompted nationwide protests and court challenges and forced women in red states to consider travelling hundreds of kilometres to seek a termination. Between the Democratic bastions in states on the east and west coasts, abortion is set to remain legal in only a handful of states. The referendum result in Kansas, however, means that abortion clinics there can serve women from neighbouring Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and other states.
The vote suggests that the overturning of Roe v Wade has galvanised voters heading into the midterms and that the abortion issue might fracture traditional party loyalties.