Kansas’ resounding rejection of an effort to allow new restrictions on abortion access, hinted at Republican vulnerability in the midterm elections, opening a path for Democrats to win over more-moderate GOP (Grand Old Party) voters in November.
Tuesday’s referendum in a Republican stronghold was the first abortion-related ballot measure this year. Abortion-rights supporters in Michigan, where Joe Biden prevailed in 2020 after Donald Trump’s 2016 triumph, are trying to arrange a vote in November. Voters will also weigh in on abortion rights in California, Kentucky, Montana and Vermont in the general election.
“It’s an extraordinary victory, it’s amazing,” Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood, said on MSNBC. “I think this has got to be a wake-up call for the Republican Party.”
With Biden’s low approval ratings as president and Americans struggling with decades-high inflation, Democrats have sought to use the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs Wade as a galvanising issue to ignite their base and independent suburban woman voters.
Biden, hailing Tuesday’s record voter turnout, said the results show “the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion”.
He said he will sign a second executive order directing the department of health and human services to come up with ways to help patients travel outside their states for abortions using Medicaid funds.
In Kansas, a state Trump won by a margin of nearly 15 percentage points in 2020, voters rejected an amendment to the state constitution that would have allowed the legislature to restrict abortions, according to the AP. With 97% of the vote counted, returns showed that 59% voted to keep intact a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that granted abortion rights under the state constitution.
“The vast majority of people support a woman being able to make her own decision.
— Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan governor
In the weeks since the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision, nearby states, including Texas, Missouri and Arkansas, have implemented total bans on the procedure, driving up wait times as more patients seek abortion care in Kansas.
Michigan’s swing-state role makes the potential abortion vote there a focus in November. Abortion-rights supporters have collected more than enough signatures to have the issue added to the ballot, but are waiting on the signatures to be verified.
Abortion took centre stage in Tuesday’s primaries, with Democrats picking governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has made defending reproductive rights a pillar of her first term, and Republicans nominating Tudor Dixon, who supports strict bans on the procedure.
Dixon, an election denier and right-wing media personality who was backed by Trump, won 40% of the votes in her party’s primary, according to the Associated Press. She beat four Republican candidates, including former front-runner Ryan Kelley, who was arrested for his role in the January 6 Capitol riots.
Dixon has said she opposes abortion in all cases, but would approve the procedure to save the life of the woman. Whitmer, meanwhile, sued in the Michigan Supreme Court for a ruling that a ban dating back to 1846, and updated with tougher penalties in 1931, violates the state’s constitution. She also supports a statewide referendum on legal abortion.
“It’s a really important issue and it’s not just for the Democratic base,” Whitmer said in an interview before Tuesday’s primary. “It’s for women across Michigan and about bodily autonomy and rights that we’ve had for decades that are being ripped away from us.”
Whitmer said voters are on her side when it comes to abortion. Polls published before the primaries showed Whitmer leading all five Republicans vying to challenge her in November by at least 10 points.
With a Democratic governor and Republican-controlled state senate, Michigan is often viewed as a “purple state”, where elections are usually decided by moderate independent voters. A poll taken by television station WDIV and the Detroit News in July found that 58% of Michigan voters opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe, which made abortion legal nationwide.
“The vast majority of people support a woman being able to make her own decision,” Whitmer said.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
— Bloomberg
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