Plan B Forum

The ballot issue was actually for a state constitutional amendment which would have allowed state legislators to change laws on abortion. The state supreme court ruled that the constitution allowed abortion in 2019. The changes would have, in all probability, outlawed abortion in almost all cases. The turnout was FAR higher than any off year KS primary election ever. (Yes there were folks running for office too.) In some cases lines were over two hours long. I was in and out in about half an hour at 9:00 AM. Mrs Mc took an hour just before noon. It got worse later, especially in larger precincts.

Lies and deceitful statements were made on both sides, including a last day text blitz, from a supposedly unknown source out of state, that said that voting YES would insure that women would have greater choices in their reproductive rights. The opposite would have been true once the laws were allowed to be changed.

https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/pol ... 187260002/

It's a little unclear from your post but KS voted by a double digit margin to allow abortion. I clicked on the link but the piece may have been updated since you posted it.

Re the mysterious and misleading text blitz: per Huff Post it was traced to a Republican aligned firm, whatever that means:

Abortion rights advocates and lawmakers argued Republicans intentionally made the language of the amendment vague and confusing in order to mislead voters. The allegation from Democrats rang true after Kansas voters received a deceptive text message the night before the ballot vote, urging Kansans to vote yes on the amendment because it “will give women a choice” and “protect women’s health.” A vote in favor of the amendment would have stripped abortion protections from the state constitution. The texts, which were unsigned, were later linked back to a Republican-aligned firm that had connections to former U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.).

Hummm, the link still works for me, possibly because I have an online subscription. Thank you for your additional research.

It's interesting that EX Rep Tim Huelskamp still has PAC money at his disposal.

Bravo to Kansans for getting out to vote against the coming of Gilead.

I first heard about this vote via BBC late Monday. They said the wording on the ballot was intentionally as confusing as they could make it. The Beeb also said there was much disinformation on both sides.

I am happy to say the results indicate to me, that in Kansas Trump was not able to fool enough of the people enough of the time.

snailgate

BoSoxGal wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 03, 2022 4:00 pm

Bravo to Kansans for getting out to vote against the coming of Gilead.

Hear! Hear! Also ditto! and amen!

Here’s the meme I’ve been looking for all day:

There should be more than a few Republicans shitting bricks over the mid-terms seeing what happened here. Almost double the typical primary turnout. A 20 point margin of victory for bodily autonomy. SCOTUS handed the Democrats a gift with a big bow.

So here's something I'm wondering:

The Supreme Court has ruled that the federal constitution includes no right to abortion/privacy that supersedes state law, and that the issue therefore devolves to the states. It is well settled that state constitutions can establish protections of individual rights greater than those provided by the federal constitution. Now that it has been affirmed that Kansas's constitution protects the right to abortion, could a federal statute banning abortion be enforceable in Kansas? Since SCOTUS has already ruled that the federal constitution has nothing to say about the subject, how could a federal statute "overrule" or pre-empt a state constitutional right?

Man, I wish Andrew D were still around.

Even if it couldn't ban abortion, I imagine a federal statute could make interstate travel to obtain one a crime.

I think you’re making too much of this vote. Like I said before, support for eliminating abortion in most red states is Luke warm. Also, in Kansas, a strong libertarian undercurrent could explain much of the vote. Just because Kansas voted to maintain their current restrictions on abortion and not increase them doesn’t mean the state will go blue. I wouldn’t be surprised if more red states vote the same way Kansas did, but it doesn’t mean they’re going to turn blue either.

Oooh, someone’s quivering in their fascist boots - just a little.

Women and the allies of women will not be defeated on this issue - if we can mobilize in Kansas we can mobilize anywhere. A big chunk of the Kansas NO vote belonged to republicans and independents, it was not blue alone that made this happen.

Just like in 2020 a whole lot of republicans and independents voted Trump out of office, we can mobilize those same folks sickened by the GOP’s fascist turning to vote with us in November and in 2024.

I am a little bit hopeful today that the vast majority of moderate Americans can win the day in the end.