Voters headed to the polls in the Midwestern US state of Kansas Tuesday to weigh in on the first major ballot on abortion since the Supreme Court ended the national right to the procedure in June.
The vote is heavy with consequences for Kansans, who will decide whether to remove the right to terminate a pregnancy from the traditionally conservative state’s constitution.
But it is also seen as a test case for abortion rights nationwide, as Republican-dominated legislatures rush to impose strict bans on the procedure following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Turnout was high after polls opened at 7:00 am (1200 GMT), according to poll worker Marsha Barrett, who said some 250 voters had come to the station in Olathe by noon — the same number it might see all day in a presidential election.
“This election is crazy,” Barrett told AFP. “People are determined to vote.”
Other states including California and Kentucky are set to vote on the hot-button issue in November, at the same time as Congressional midterm elections in which both Republicans and Democrats hope to use it to mobilize their supporters nationwide.
In Kansas, the ballot centers on a 2019 ruling by the state’s supreme court that guarantees access to abortion — currently up to the 22-week stage of pregnancy.
In response, the Republican-dominated state legislature introduced an amendment known as “Value Them Both” that would scrap the constitutional right — with the stated aim of handing regulation of the procedure back to lawmakers.
In the opposing camp, activists see the campaign as a barely masked bid to clear the way for an outright ban — one state legislator has already introduced a bill that would ban abortion without exceptions for rape, incest, or the mother’s life.
For Ashley All, spokeswoman for pro-abortion rights campaign Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, the amendment would deal a blow to “personal autonomy.”
Activists also complain that the phrasing of the ballot question is counterintuitive, and potentially confusing: voting “Yes” to the amendment means abortion rights being curbed, while people who wish to keep those rights intact must vote “No.”
First-time voter Morgan Spoor knew she wanted to vote “no” to support “the right to choose.”
“I really want my word out there, especially as a female,” the 19-year-old told AFP. “I don’t think anyone can say what a woman can do with their body.”
– All eyes on Kansas –
Abortion rights advocates in Kansas are looking nervously to neighboring Oklahoma and Missouri, which are among at least eight states to have passed near-total bans — the latter making no exceptions for rape or incest — while Midwestern Indiana adopted its own rigid ban on Saturday.
Kara Miller Karns, a voter in Leawood, said she planned to vote for the status quo on Tuesday, saying it was “not acceptable” for her daughters to grow up with fewer rights than she did.
But in the same Kansas neighborhood, 43-year-old Christine Vasquez said she planned to back the constitutional amendment — in hope it would clear the way for a future vote on an abortion ban.
“I believe that life starts at conception,” she told AFP ahead of the ballot.
The outcome in Kansas could mean a boost or a blow to either side of the highly charged abortion debate.
Kansas leans heavily toward the Republican Party, which favors stricter abortion regulations, but a 2021 survey from Fort Hays State University found that fewer than 20 percent of Kansas respondents agreed that abortion should be illegal even in cases of rape or incest.
