Reproductive rights advocates are moving forward energized by the abortion rights movement’s heartening victory this week in Kansas, which signaled that – despite what right-wing forces have claimed – masses of Americans are solidly in favor of bodily autonomy.
Kansas was the first state that voted on abortion rights following the birth of Roe v. Wade’s overturn, and the response from voters intent on protecting Kansas’s status as an abortion sanctuary in an otherwise highly restrictive Midwest was stunning.
Nearly half of all registered voters attended, a record number. However, 62 percent of them voted against the amendment that would have allowed lawmakers to ban abortion in the state. Reproductive rights advocates see the vote as a sign of hope, since it shows how similar contests could unfold in other states.
The abortion rights referendum, which was added to Kansas’s primary elections ballots on August 2, asked voters to accept or reject a proposed amendment misleadingly titled “Value Them Both,” which would have removed the state constitution’s guarantee of legal abortion.
Thanks to voters’ definitive rejection of the amendment, Kansas, which is heavily conservative and generally votes Republican, is expected to remain an abortion sanctuary in a region rife with abortion bans (the states that are its immediate neighbors have near-total abortion bans).
Republicans had initially tried to get an amendment titled “Kansas No State Constitutional Right to Abortion” on the 2020 ballot. After that failed, they renamed their proposed amendment “Value them Both,” reflecting the anti-abortion movement’s new attempt to brand itself as “pro-woman” and cast abortion access as a form of violence toward women. The amendment’s language itself is highly convoluted and seems designed to confuse rather than clarify. It reads:
Kansans value both their children and their women. The Kansas constitution does not require that the government funds abortion. It does not grant or guarantee a right to abortion. The constitution allows for the adoption of laws by the people through their elected state representatives or state senators.
Kansas has been home to the anti-abortion movement since long. It’s the state where abortion doctor George Tiller was murdered by anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder in 2009. Kansas was the state where the anti-abortion movement launched an offensive to ensure that Kansas’s first post-abortion victory.RoeVote would go its direction. The campaign for the “Value Them Both” amendment raised $5.4 million — more than $3 million of which was contributed by the Catholic Church. The campaign was spent at least $4.5 million on advertisingThey used various Republican-friendly advertising agencies to produce robocalls and flyers, as well as TV spots, flyers, texts messages, and Facebook ads. Many of these messages contained misleading information.
In a TV advertisement in support of the amendment, Mayor Peggy Dunn of Leawood, Kansas, claimed that Value Them Both “doesn’t ban abortion or remove exceptions — that’s just a scare tactic.” While it is true that the amendment does not explicitly ban abortion, it makes ample scope for an eventual abortion ban to be enacted. In fact, the anti-abortion coalition claimed that they had legislation to ban abortion in place in case the amendment was passed. A pre-recorded message by Kansans for Life Communications Director Danielle Underwood fretted about late-term abortions, taxpayer-funded abortions, no parental consent laws — even though Kansas’ abortion law prohibits abortions after 22 weeks, only provides public funds only in the cases of rape, incest, or the health of the mother, and requires two-parent consent for a minor to receive an abortion.
Most concerningly, pro-choice Kansans received text messages on the eve the election from an unknown number that appeared to be designed to mislead the voters about the procedure and the amendment. The texts read: “Women in KS are losing their choice on reproductive rights. Voting YES on this amendment will give women a choice. Vote YES to protect women’s health.”
In fact, voting “yes” on the amendment would remove the constitutional protection of abortion. Because the sender of the messages was not identified, it could have been in violation FCC regulations on political messaging. Twilio claims that it leased the numbers to send the text messages to Alliance Forge, which is Republican-friendly. Alliance Forge’s Chief Executive David Espinosa told The Washington Post, “Alliance Forge did not consult on this message’s messaging strategy or content.” Twilio has suspended Alliance Forge from its services. According to state campaign finance disclosure reports Alliance Forge received $26,335 form Do Right PAC. This is a right-wing political activity committee that was primarily funded by CatholicVote. The PAC was founded by former U.S. Representative for Kansas’ 1st representative district Tim Huelskamp, a far right politician.
Do Right PAC funded a video advertisement featuring Harrison Butker, Kansas Chiefs kicker. In the ad, Butker says, “without this amendment, even barbaric late-term abortions will be allowed” — even though Kansas already has a 22-week limit for abortions.
This use of targeted advertising — and the surveillance involved in mounting such a campaign — vindicates disturbing predictions about technology and surveillance in a post-Roe world. Since long, it has been known that there are anti-abortion technology companies that help Crisis Pregnancy Centers target pregnant individuals through their Internet searches or through geofencing. Even more alarming, law enforcement has used this data to target women suspected of ending their own pregnancies. As states move to criminalize self-managed abortions — and potentially criminalize travelling out of state to receive an abortion — the centrality of Big Tech in stripping people of their bodily autonomy becomes stark.
The Kansas decision has some positive aspects. Despite the fact that Kansas has only four remaining abortion clinics, more than half of all Kansas abortions are performed on out-of-state patients. This is due to the fact that Missouri and Oklahoma border states have passed near-total bans on abortion.
The outcome in Kansas has implications for states like Pennsylvania or Michigan, which are also divided on abortion rights and have been closely following this election. The resounding messages are clear: Americans support abortion rights, regardless of what the anti-abortion movement may claim.
