Major victory for pro-choice groups

• Kansas voters reject constitutional right to abortion access by a margin of more than 60%. The US Supreme Court’s decision to uphold abortion rights is seen as out of line with the general public. President Joe Biden predicted that people would consider abortion rights when Roe v. Wade was overturned.
• A Catholic church and statue of the Virgin Mary were vandalised with red paint and a pro-choice message. Despite being a highly conservative state, Kansas has less restrictive abortion laws than many other states.
• Other states, like Vermont and California, are conducting elections to strengthen abortion provisions in their constitutions.

The majority of voters said they did not want the state constitution to be changed to state there is no right to abortion.

Since the US Supreme Court permitted states to outlaw the practise, it had not been put to a vote before.

If the outcome of the election had been different, lawmakers might have taken action to further limit or outlaw abortion in Kansas.

Since the US Supreme Court invalidated Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal throughout the country, two months ago, the Kansas ballot question had been eagerly awaited.

According to projections, Kansans supported the state’s constitutional right to abortion access by a margin of more than 60%.

For the time being, it is only a projection; the final outcome will be verified in a week.

President Joe Biden predicted that people would consider abortion rights when Roe v. Wade was overturned. That theory now has support thanks to what happened in Kansas.

In a state that Republican former President Donald Trump narrowly won two years ago, the referendum outcome is being viewed as a landslide.

The Supreme Court’s decision is seen by Democrats and pro-choice organisations as being out of line with the general public, and this shows that Americans are extremely dissatisfied about the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold abortion rights.

On November 8, the US will hold national midterm elections, with Democrats vying to keep possession of Congress.

The outcome, according to Mr. Biden, “shows that most Americans think that women should have access to abortion,”

At a watch party in Overland Park, Kansas, one voter, Taylor Hirth, sobbed as she celebrated the outcome with her nine-year-old daughter.

The idea of my kid ever getting pregnant and me being powerless to prevent it infuriates her since she was raped, she told the BBC.

“We have worked so hard to get the vote out here that I never imagined it would happen. Republicans miscalculated our might.”

Respect them Both, a Kansas-based pro-life organisation, claimed that during the preceding six months, “radical left organisations” had “spread lies” about the amendment and that “Kansans experienced an avalanche of misinformation from them.”

A statement on its Twitter page read, “This outcome is a momentary setback, and our devoted struggle to value women and babies is far from done.”

On a primary election day when Republicans often exceed Democrats by a two to one margin, Kansas officials reported that overall voter turnout was much higher than anticipated.

In the final month before the election, when emotions were high, a Catholic church and a statue of the Virgin Mary were vandalised with red paint and a pro-choice message.

Some Kansans had received false SMS on the day of the election pushing them to “vote yes” to defend choice, but the reverse was true – a “yes” vote was to restrict access to abortion. Twilio, a tech business, announced that it had removed the sender’s anonymity from its system.

Despite being a highly conservative state, Kansas has less restrictive abortion laws than many other states with Republican governors.

Other restrictions, such as an obligatory 24-hour waiting time and mandatory parental approval for children, apply to the termination of pregnancies up to 22 weeks.

Republicans who oppose abortion dominate the state’s legislature, while Laura Kelly, the governor of the Great Plains state, is a Democrat. She had cautioned that altering Kansas’ state constitution would send the state “back into the dark ages.”

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling on June 24th, more than a dozen states with Republican governors have taken steps to outlaw or further restrict abortion.

However, the right to an abortion is guaranteed by state constitutions in 10 US states, including Kansas. These provisions can only be changed through popular vote.

Other states, like Vermont and California, are conducting elections in November to strengthen abortion provisions in their state constitutions.

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