Of all the things that I wasn’t expecting, having Kansas voters resoundingly defeat a Constitutional amendment that would have stripped them of protections for abortion rights would have been near the top of my list of unexpected things.
That’s right, folks, voters in Kansas rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment Tuesday that would have said there was no right to an abortion.
And it wasn’t even close.
At last count it was 534,134 votes (58.8%) turning down the constitutional amendment, and only 374,611 votes (41.2%) in support.
In Kansas.
The state about which Thomas Franks wrote the 2004 classic, “What’s the Matter with Kansas.”
That state.
This is a potentially huge boon for Democrats. It means that women voters (and their male allies) actually care about abortion rights. And are willing to come out and vote on it.
“Leave it to the states,” the conservative pundits said. Okay, they did in Kansas, and the voters came back with a resounding decision.
This obviates the need to have to worry about what conservative legislators in Kansas would have done — it almost certainly wouldn’t have been good — and allowed the people to decide.
The anti-abortion movement is now like the dog that catches the car.
It’s not going to be pretty.
Let this be a clarion call to all Democratic voters, young, old, male and female, and the independents who actually care about bodily autonomy (and not just in an “I don’t want to get vaccinated” kind of way) to let their voices be heard in November.
