By Dr. Carmen Schaye, NWPC Vice President of Diversity

         The unintended effects of banning abortion have forced women to organize to be visible and present at the polls. On August 2nd, 2022 Kansans voted resoundingly against an amendment that would have permitted the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to ban abortion without exceptions, a big win for the abortion rights, and a big defeat for the anti-abortion side. Could this indicate a surprise large turnout expected during the midterms, galvanized by abortion rights?

          Public and private polls showed the race to be close, but a landslide of over 59% of voters cast their ballots against the constitutional amendment on the ballot. The amendment would have banned taxpayer funding of abortion and effectively invalidated a 2019 ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court that the state’s constitution protected abortion rights. Approval of the ballot measure would have given Kansas anti-abortion lawmakers with a supermajority in the Kansas legislature the momentum to follow Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas to ban abortion without exceptions.

         If abortion rights won over 59% support in Kansas, it has even more support nationwide. The stakes of abortion policy have become high enough that it can drive a high midterm turnout on its own. This November, Democrats are running close races in the House and Senate. Democrats have looked at Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion, a decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, as the potential savior for them. 

         The public has been outraged, particularly women, younger voters, and progressives, who are among the most disappointed in Biden’s year and a half of governance, potentially reversing the decline in Democrat enthusiasm for November’s critical midterm election. 

© Dr. Carmen Schaye