What does it mean that Kansas voted to keep the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution?

I think the Rep/cons are getting worried about November.

Perhaps some Republican politicians care a bit about voter opinions?

Gallup has reported that 66% of Republican non-politicians agreed that abortion should be legal in some or all circumstances.

That the Supreme Court never banned shit. The laws are up to the people. This is just a state level issue now.

It means a serious wake up call for Repubs. People are getting fed up. I heard on the news today that the NRA was planning a big conference in Uvalde where the school shootings happened. And were even going to hold a raffle for an auto rifle similar to what the gun man used. A furious and pissed off crowd forced the city council to abort the whole thing and the property owner who had been renting the facility to them for their meetings in the town for the last thirty odd years, canceled their lease. Times are changing. Rapidly.

@Smashley: “That the Supreme Court never banned shit. The laws are up to the people. This is just a state level issue now.”

Yeah, I wish we handled slavery the same way that we now do with female bodily autonomy. Shut the fuck up with that shit.

@Smashley
Yeah, just wait until the reps have control of congress, then they will ban it on a federal level.
Watch how fast “but muh state’s rights!” gets thrown out of the window.

The voters have spoken.

I was thinking that it was purposely worded tricky and long winded. I bet at least some Republicans in their denial blame it on voters not understanding what voting yes or no meant.

@ragingloli Yup. That’s the big fear among the people I know.

Population control is appreciated in Kansas.

It’s not a surprise to most of us, they are known as an abortion destination state like Illinois. It’s nice they got to vote on it, unlike the rest of us.

It does not mean anything other than what is right there. Supreme court pushed the decision to the states and that particular state voted in favor of keeping abortion rights. I don’t think this will stop the red wave coming but what is happening is there is a bit of backlash against far right policy like this. Unless you’re a pro-life activist or evangelical this decision is probably expected. I think there is more voting weight behind pro-choice in most places. Like mentioned, at least they got to vote. My state had a trigger law that banned abortion when there is a heartbeat. We did not get to vote on that which is bullshit.

In an nutshell, it means that the right wing overstepped (as usual).

Abortion rights and female autonomy clearly has more support among Kansas than it does with politicians. The politicians (right wing, white nationalist, religious Taliban) thought they could stuff the Supreme COurt decision down Kansans’ throats. Bad bet.

The thing is – this was known before the Supreme Court lackeys ruled. Abortion rights had something like 60% support before the Court ruled. Why they made a knowingly unpopular decision can only be explained by their right wing ass-kissing.

If I were a republican running on an anti-abortion agenda, I would seriously rethink my strategy for Fall.

@elbanditoroso
That is also why they are so enamored with pushing the “voter fraud” lie (while committing election fraud themselves), voter suppression efforts, and enabling states to just overturn election results they do not like.

“If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.” —David Frum

@elbanditoroso You don’t need a majority to vote in Hitler or any other political position. The pro-lifers will just push for legislation once they put their people in place. The abortion fight will never be over.

Kansas has taken a step in the right direction. Suppressing woman’s rights to their own body is unconscionable. I like to see if the role was reversed and men had to deal with this, being told what they can and can’t do with their bodies. Having and raising a child is such a monumental lifelong endeavor and subjecting a young woman to take that on even in cases of r@pe or incest is beyond words.

@Blackwater_Park Same, our trigger law was the first to be signed by any state immediately following the SC ruling.
I would be very intetested in a vote. It’s one thing to choose for ourselves, but I don’t like politicians assuming the majority wants the abortion ban. Democracy is the rule of the majority, after all.

@JLeslie But the proposition was worded to confuse voters into banning abortion. They even ran ads that were purposely confusing: “Vote Yes to Preserve Your Rights”.

In summation, the American Taliban had their asses handed to them.

@zenvelo I know it was worded to confuse pro-choice people. I’m just saying the pro-lifers can twist it to say people mistakenly voted the wrong way either way they want to twist it. Even if they are calling their own people stupid, they won’t see it that way, they will blame the authors of the proposal. That’s what I was thinking anyway, I could be wrong of course, it was just a guess of mine about how they might explain it away.

This sort of thing happens all the time. Locally, they passed a wheel tax using that trick. IMO the people sponsoring a bill should not also be allowed to provide outreach for it.

“What does it mean?”

It means 60% of the Kansas population is intelligent.

@JLeslie The republicans would have to undertake another decades long process of remaking the court to undo the supermajority that now is favor of keeping the federal government out of abortion.

Republicans got what they wanted, but they didn’t know what they were going for in the first place. States passed symbolic laws before they were legal, or didn’t update existing obsolete law, and then the court took a federalist turn and it gave the impression the court was making the law. Now we see that even a state with a book written about how it is the worst state is made up of normal humans who can think, and the majority do not want abortion to be illegal.

Most Americans do not support a blanket ban on abortion. That is something that was known before the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. This vote in Kansas reflects that. Abortion bans have mostly been enacted using decades-old “trigger laws” and legislative decisions. Put it to a direct vote and the results are different. That does not surprise me at all. There’s a reason why direct democracy isn’t popular with some: it bears out different results.

My history knowledge is lacking, but I’m pretty sure there were some great women in Kansas back in history, and if it is part of the state constitution to protect women’s right over their body, then that to me means the beginnings of Kansas possibly were quite progressive, and it has been other influences within the state that have tried to control those strong women.

If I remember correctly Kansas helped preserve property rights for women similar to Wyoming and some other equality rights. I’ll have to read up on it. The West had a lot of stories about women having to be quite independent and certain negotiations and concessions took place when the western territories were becoming part of the union.

I read that the vote spread was actually 62% to 37%, which is huge.

Not just ads. I literally got a text day before yesterday that said “Vote YES to keep your right to abortion.” They’ll stoop to any level.

^^ Wow.

Well until they crush your democracy the REp/cons are stuck with voters and they know people want this so for now they will give it to them.

^^^^ “the REp/cons” as you phrase it are not giving anything to anybody, they are doing their best to take away people’s rights. They do not care if “people want this”.

@zenvelo I know that, but right now they want votes come November so they do this so people think they are listening.
They will strip this right when it’s safe for them to do so.

@SQUEEKY2 The Kansas legislature had bills teed up if the proposition had passed to put onerous restrictions on abortion. The vote maintained the freedom already enshrined in the Kansas State constitution, and the legislature cannot pass laws against abortion while the right is in the State constitution.

The Republicans are not “listening” for November, they would have passed laws today if the vote had gone their way. For now, they cannot strip that right because the people have spoken and kept it in the Kansas constitution.