Kansas GOP Seeks to Remove Abortion Rights From State Constitution in Primaries

August 2 marks the beginning of the primary in Kansas. Voters will be choosing their party’s nominee for governor, congressional representatives and state representatives. It’s a typical primary day ballot, except for one item: Amendment 2, which would remove the right to an abortion from the state constitution.

In the aftermath of the end Roe v. Wade, 13 statesThese states are currently enforcing bans on abortion, while another state, Wisconsin has stopped providing abortions entirely. Many of those states are Kansas’s neighbors, including Oklahoma, Missouri and nearby Arkansas. For now, abortion remains legal in Kansas, and that’s largely because in 2019, the Kansas State Supreme Court ruledThe Kansas State Constitution guarantees the right to abortion. This landmark ruling is what keeps abortion legal in Kansas. Abortion opponents and hostile legislators are clamoring to make abortion illegal in Kansas.Roe U.S.

Amendment 2 gives them the chance to do just this. If it passes it will override the 2019 Kansas State Supreme Court decision and abolish Kansas’ right for abortion. The polls are very close. A recent Co/efficient According to a poll, 47 percent of Kansans are planning to vote for the Amendment, while 43 percent are opposed. Ten percent are still undecided.

But this isn’t the fair fight that abortion opponents are claiming it is.

In his Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, Justice Samuel Alito insisted that we can just “vote” our way to abortion rights, an absurd claim from a justice who has favored every attack on voting rights to come his way. This election is a perfect refutation to that claim. The vote on Amendment 2 — quite literally about whether abortion should remain a constitutional right in Kansas — is happening during a primary election, in a midterm election year, in a state that requires voter ID, in the middle of one of the hottestone of the worst summers. Now, abortion opponents want votes via the ballot box discounted.

Advocates claim the amendment is not only legal, but also a good idea. confusingly wordedIt is also riddled with inaccuracies. In one Kansas county, the word “pregnancy” was spelled incorrectly. Rotonda Johnson, a 56 year-old Kansan, told the Washington Post that she’s confused about which way to vote on the amendment: “I had to ask, which way for yes and which way for no? Either way, I don’t think the government should stop abortion.”

The only way to win on this losing issue is through electoral chicanery. In the U.S., legal abortion is quite popular. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that legal abortion is quite popular. CNN poll69 percent want to be a doctor. Roe v. Wade to be upheld. This is what abortion opponents know. They know that banning abortion isn’t supported by the majority of Americans, so instead, they try to find creative ways to ban abortion while telling us that they’re not actually banning abortion.

Take, for example, the Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws. These laws are not medically necessary and are burdensome requirements that states impose upon abortion clinics. For example, they may require them to follow strict facility regulations. This is designed to force clinics out of business. But abortion opponents disingenuously argue TRAP laws are not about closing down abortion clinics; they want us to believe they’re about safety! Sex-selective abortion bans? Abortion opponents falsely claim they’re not about banning abortion; they want us to believe they’re about protecting baby girls!

An amendment that would take Kansans away from their newly-affirmed right to abortion? Abortion opponents say it’s not about banning abortion; they just want “reasonable safeguards” in place!

All this is false garbage. Abortion opponents aren’t interesting in protecting women and girls — their agenda is to ban abortion, and while RoeThey had to be creative in finding ways to make it work. They don’t have to be creative anymore. How could we possibly know this? Look at what has happened after Roe v. Wade’s end. A growing number state are implementing restrictions or bans on abortion. This could increase to as much as 25% in a matter of months. 26 statesMore than half of the countries in the union are represented by them.

The point of Amendment 2 and ending the constitutional right to abortion is exactly that — ending legal abortion. Recently, Kansas State Senator Mark Steffen stated the same. If Amendment 2 passes, “We’ll be able to make further laws, further refinement, with my goal of life starting at conception,” he said at a local county meeting. If Amendment 2 is passed, the Republican-dominated legislature will quickly move to ban abortion, likely without exceptions for incest, rape or the health of the pregnant person. This is because more Republicans are now backing the bill. pushing.

Kansas has a history against anti-abortion organization. George Tiller refused the offer of abortion care in Wichita in spite of a bombing at his clinic and an assassination attempt from an anti-abortion terrorist. Since 1996, the Kansas Abortion Fund has supported abortions and provided access to care. A bipartisan coalition of organizations and advocates for reproductive rights has emerged. Kansas for Constitutional Freedom, tried to channel this history into a consolidated effort to defeat Amendment 2.

The federal protection of a Kansan’s right to an abortion is already gone, due to the egregious ruling in Dobbs. If the state protection of this right falls on August 2, then the right to an abortion in Kansas will be rendered unprotected against the most extreme antiabortion forces. A ban on abortions is only one step towards restricting the rights and life of pregnant women in Kansas. There is more to come. If abortion opponents succeed in overriding what the Kansas Supreme Court only recently affirmed, it’s clear that any right, no matter how seemingly entrenched, is at risk.