The Activist Offering: Lessons from Kansas – Progressive.org – Progressive.org

The recent victory in Kansas signals good news for the rest of the country. Last week, voters in Kansas became the first in the country to decide the fate of abortion rights. Overwhelmingly, Kansans chose to protect abortion in the state. After weeks of mobilizing on the ground, reproductive justice organizations can now rest easy knowing that their hard work paid off.

Voters were deciding whether the states constitution protected or denied the right to abortion in the state. Rightwing state lawmakers passed an amendment in early 2021 that would have outlawed abortion. But changing the constitution in Kansas requires a statewide referendum. Legislators purposefully added the measure to the ballot in August, when few historically turn out to vote. One July poll even indicated that the majority of voters were in favor of the amendment.

What lawmakers could not prepare for was the reversal of federal abortion rights in June. In the wake of the Supreme Courts Dobbs decision, dozens of states immediately outlawed abortion with minimal exceptions. Others yet imposed severe bans, and more states are poised to follow suit.

This comes at a time when 85 percent of voters think abortion should be legal in some and all cases and 56 percent of Americans are opposed to the Dobbs decision. As the first post-Roe battleground, Kansans had a lot riding on them. Upending expectations, 59 percent of voters rejected the amendment in what CNN called a thunderclap ballot box victory.

Abortion is more than a pet cause of activists in so-called blue states.

Tonight, Kansans from a broad coalition of political beliefs voted resoundingly to maintain the status quo and keep access to abortions legal, Trust Women, an abortion clinic in Witchita, Kansas, said in a statment via email. This was the correct decision, and also the only compassionate and humane option on the ballot. Kansans have rejected the notion that pregnant people are hostages to their pregnancy. They have rejected the notion that the most personal and important life decisions must be managed by distant lawmakers. They have chosen liberty and self-empowerment over extremist ideology.

In the days following the Kansas referendum, The New York Times released new data showing that voters in more than forty states would reject a similar initiative to roll back legal abortion. While this is just a rough estimate, it clearly signals that abortion is a winning issue.

Kansas surprised the nation. Just two years ago, Trump won Kansas by fifteen points.

But this referendum saw 140,000 more votes than the states gubernatorial primary races combined and more Kansans voted in this primary election than in any other in the states history. There was also a massive spike in voter registrations by women after the Dobbs draft opinion leaked in May, and an even larger jump after the decision officially came down, according to data compiled from state voter registration files by Tom Bonier, a lecturer in political science at Howard University.

Anti-abortion actors should take note. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City spent $2.45 million to fund the anti-abortion movement in the state. Its clear that opponents of abortion are deeply out of touch with their constituents and have drastically underestimated the lengths to which people will go to protect access. Abortion is more than a pet cause of activists in so-called blue states. It is a tool of hope, empowerment, and liberationno matter where we live.

Steph Black is an abortion activist and writer based in Washington, D.C. She also writes a column, "The Activist Offering," for The Progressive. Read her work at stephblackstrategies.com.

August 10, 2022

11:21 AM

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The Activist Offering: Lessons from Kansas - Progressive.org - Progressive.org