Kansas Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment Beaten by 20 Points Sends a Lesson to the Pro-Life Movement and a Life Line to the Left – Opinion

Kansas voters rejected the proposed amendment to Kansas’ constitution that would have overturned an order of Kansas’ supreme court that gave birth rights in Kansas.

The amendment was rejected by 59%-41%.

§ 22. Regulation of abortion. Kansans are proud of their children and women. The Kansas constitution does not allow for government funding and doesn’t grant a right or guarantee that they can have abortions. The constitution allows the citizens to pass abortion laws through the state senators and representatives.

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling that there is no federal Constitutional right for abortion, this was the first test of the pro-abortion sentiment. Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health. Each side was well-financed.

What is it?

Most importantly, a referendum measure to ban the practice of abortion will only be accepted if it is portrayed as a way for women to die in emergency rooms. This scenario, however bizarre, is very real. It is simple to grasp, so pro-life legislators should keep it in mind as they draft a ballot measure.

Kansas’s 2020 election saw abortion beat by Joe Biden. In every county, the “No” vote beat Biden’s total.

“No” on Kansas abortion amendment outpacing Biden’s performance in counties across state — currently about 145K votes counted pic.twitter.com/jvQ8rhL9wn

— Kabir Khanna (@kabir_here) August 3, 2022

This map shows the strength of the “No” vote by county.

Just for fun, here’s a map of the abortion amd vote, w/ ~95% reporting, with blue being NO and red being YES. pic.twitter.com/gysNhKWoz0

— Ethan C7 (@ECaliberSeven) August 3, 2022

This graph shows how votes have changed since the 2020 general elections.

One of the most interesting facts about last night’s Kansas abortion referendum: rural counties actually swung MORE toward NO than urban/suburban counties, compared to 2020 Prez.

Below is the map of the swing between 2020 Prez and 2022 Amd. RELATED to the state pic.twitter.com/PBtJRsk6Tx

— Ethan C7 (@ECaliberSeven) August 3, 2022

You can see that in most counties, the “No” vote did not do as well as the Trump-Pence ticket.

Kansas is closed state. The referendum was on the ballot received 181,000 more votes than in the primary for governor. The issue was a popular one. A staggering 66% turnout in primary elections was recorded in the 2020 general election.

Kansas’s election result has been interpreted by the leftist media as an affirmation of their worldview. This is the way Politico assesses voting results.

IN KANSAS … A POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE — By a stunning, roughly 20-point margin, Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have given state lawmakers the chance to either further restrict or ban abortions in the state. Turnout swelled — “approaching what’s typical for a fall election for governor,” per the AP — and the “no” vote did well not just in Democratic strongholds, but in conservative and rural areas, outperforming JOE BIDEN’s 2020 vote share there.

The Supreme Court had not seen it before. struck down Roe V. Wade that voters had a chance to directly weigh in on abortion rights.

The result is “a political earthquake with the potential to reshape the entire midterm campaign,” David Siders, Adam Wren and Zach Montellaro write in their rundown of election takeaways.

Kansas Reporting our Alice Miranda Ollstein writes that “the vote also countered the narrative that the abortion issue is a bigger motivator for conservative voters, and may signal a warning to Republican lawmakers across the country that the Roe In the coming months, and for many years to come, there may be significant opposition.

“Politically, the outcome is sure to reverberate across the country and buoy the Democrats’ bid to capitalize on the overturning of Roe in the midterm battle for Congress this fall. It will lift the party’s hopes that anger over the Supreme Court’s decision will matter more than concerns about inflation and President JOE BIDDEN’s leadership, allowing Democrats to maintain their narrow majorities on Capitol Hill,” she writes.

This overstates I believe the value of the Kansas vote.

Kansas held a referendum that was independent on abortion. It may be possible to generate outrage on an issue but to make the three-cushion bank shot from a single issue to “this candidate doesn’t like abortion, so women will die” strikes me as farfetched. All polling shows Dobbs disenfranchised Molochites, making them less likely vote. (New Poll: Defending abortion is not the killer issue Democrats thought would save them from voters in November).

There are plenty of reasons to be concerned.

Kentucky is considering a ballot initiative in 2022 that looks very much like Kansas.

Do you support amending Kentucky’s Constitution by adding Section 26A? This Section will state that: “To protect human life. Nothing in this Constitution shall not be construed as requiring funding of abortion.

Kentucky polling has shown that at least 57% of Kentuckians think it should be illegal to have an abortion in any case. If the Kansas effect is true, you may see an increase in the number of voters voting against abortions and showing up for the polls to ask the question.

Montana voters will be able to vote on an issue related to abortion. It requires the provision of medical care for babies born alive, regardless of attempts to kill them. I can’t see how you can rile up voters on the theme “I wanted it dead, so it has to stay dead,” but who knows.

This experience teaches us that the Pro-Life movement must regroup and reevaluate its strategies. It took us 50 years to get Roe Vs. Wade overturned and the state legislature to reinstate the measure. Now we finally have what we had fought for. We now have to find out how we can fight in the new battlespace. This thread sums it all much better than I can.

It was not uncommon for pro-lifers to be surprised or even angry by the Kansas results. This reaction is understandable on the one hand. Kansans believe in life, so the referendum must pass. It was defeated 59-41.

THREAD

— Charlie Camosy (@CCamosy) August 3, 2022

Kanas, which is now home to abortion extremism from all 50 states, will be a stronghold for tourism. This is something that virtually no one wants. Furthermore, didn’t Louisiana just pass a similar measure, 61 percent to 38 percent?

However, it seems less odd if one considers that the most motivated opposition across this country has been planning (and fundraising) for last evening since ABC’s confirmation. Some have been doing so since Kavanagh’s confirmation. $$$$ was a key player:

After Dobbs’s death, many of our best-paid, motivated and well-paid opponents took action. This included planting sympathetic stories, if not misleading, about women whose lives were at stake by the laws protecting prenatal justice. It was remarkable.

Pro-lifers weren’t sure Roe/Casey was going to fall. Pro-lifers were also given false security by pro-lifers, especially in the so-called red state, due to the success of the LA ballot measure and groupthink generated by social media algorithms.

This isn’t just losing out on money, it also means that you have a lower ground game. The fact is that the prospects of banning abortions in the first trimester and later are not very popular. However, more than 70% of Americans would like abortion to be banned after 12 weeks, with some exceptions.

That’s where pro-lifers (with a certain amount of state-by-state flexibility) need to live. Plus we need to make our model legislation absolutely clear…ABSOLUTELY ONE MILLION PERCENT CLEAR…that physicians can do whatever is necessary to save the mother’s life. Period.

Yes, even if that language is added there will continue to be dishonest players claiming they “just aren’t sure” and “maybe they still feel like women need to die because of pro-life laws.” But those extremists don’t decide elections. Women need to be protected by pro-lifers. Period.

I don’t want to say that the defeat last night was a good thing, but it could perhaps be turned into a good thing if the pro-life movements wake up to the struggle which comes next. You can no longer be lulled to false security by Dobbs.

Let’s work harder, smarter, and leave absolutely no doubt that we are there protect, support, and love both mothers and their prenatal children.

In the famous last words of union organizer and convicted murderer Joe Hill, “Don’t mourn, organize.”