It was a good thing the voters were well informed because there were some in Kansas that were putting out misleading texts to try and get people to vote for the proposal.
20% victory despite âdirty tricksâ.
But those who are trying to claim âI told you Roe wouldnât lead to outright abortion bans!ââŚthis isnât a validation for you.
Kansas is a red state but lucky for them they had a ruling that their state constitution protected abortion rightsâŚtherefore to pass restrictive laws, the GOP HAD to let this vote go to the peopleâŚand as we can see form above, they tried by hook or by crook to get a âyesâ vote on their proposal to amend the Constitution.
You think Mississippi or Texas or North Dakota or Indiana is going to put this to a popular vote now?
Think again.
In PA we will likely get a popular vote, but it is slightly different here. The GOP is trying to push a similar constitutional amendment through that Kansas just triedâŚonly in PA, there has never been a ruling as to whether our Constitution protects abortion rights. This amendment would emphatically say it doesnât.
So if abortion rights advocates âwinâ in PA, all they will âwinâ is keeping it an open question.
Long story short, howeverâŚthere is no âdrive towards moderationâ on the part of politicians. They are still being as extreme as can be.
They were thwarted in KansasâŚthat isnât going to be the same case everywhere.
The PEOPLE seek moderationâŚtheir POLITICAL LEADERS do not.
So elsewhere the political leaders will do everything they can to keep this decision out of the hands of the people.
With that removed, the legislature could pass measures that too many people would consider extreme. (Especially the blood-red Kansas legislature as it is comprised today.)
The effort could have offered an alternative constitutional wording with adequate exceptions. I stand by my assertion that with adequate exceptions, it would have passed by a 2-to-1 margin instead of losing 2-to-1.
While it is of course theoretically possible that they could have drafted a Constitutional amendment that actually placed restrictions on abortion with âadequate exceptions,â I think itâs a stretch to claim that a more restrictive Constitutional amendment would have passed, in light of this amendmentâs failure.
We know from polling that the abortion laws being passed by a lot of red states are not favored by people in general (of all political stripes).
The PEOPLE seek moderation. Their POLITICAL LEADERS do not.
And the political leaders are going to do everything possible to avoid having the people in their states have direct say over the abortion issue.
And so it was not an âoverreactionâ to realize the overturning of Roe would lead to states with overly restrictive abortion laws. Many of those laws likely not being favored by the population in those states.
The Kansas result is an aberration because the people got a chance to have a direct voice.
That will not happen in most red states. Divisive, extreme politicians will make sure of it.
Probably, as with most issues in a representative democracy, legislators will run based on their position on this and other issues. People will then vote for the legislator who best represents their position.
