Kansans have voted to protect abortion rights in their state.
The result leaves no room for doubt: 61% of those summoned to the polls this Tuesday, on the occasion of the primaries that decide the candidates of both parties for the legislative elections next November, have spoken out against an initiative of parliament that intended to add an amendment to the Constitution that left legislators free to prohibit or severely restrict the freedom to terminate pregnancy, legal in that State until the 22nd week since the last menstruation.
It is the first vote of these characteristics since the Supreme Court repealed on June 24 the half-century precedent established by the
Roe v. Wade ruling,
which in 1973 made the freedom of women to choose the interruption of their pregnancies until the end of the pregnancy constitutional. 22nd week.
The judicial decision returned the power to legislate to the States.
And Kansas is about to do just that in a momentous vote, the first of its kind since
Roe's overturn.
The result is a huge victory for the movement for women to decide.
The text that is submitted to a plebiscite is certainly confusing;
so much so that both parties have used a good portion of the funds invested in the campaign to explain what it would mean to vote yes (which is equivalent to introducing a change in the State Constitution that would open the door to prohibit abortion) and the implications of saying no .
The proposed amendment to the basic text would allow the “people, through their representatives”, “to pass laws on abortion, including, but not limited to, regulations that take into account the circumstances of pregnancy as a result of rape or incest, or situations in which the life of the mother is at stake”.
The new paragraph also makes it clear that "Kansasians value both women and children."
“Kansas values have always exemplified freedom, and tonight, Kansas continued that legacy,” said Emily Wales, director and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, a nonprofit association that has three of the five clinics that provide reproductive health services in the State.
“Anti-abortion politicians put this amendment up for a vote in the primaries, aiming for one that would turn out the voter turnout, but they failed to take into account Kansans—who have said loud and clear that they believe and trust patients to make their own decisions. medical decisions—especially during a dark time in history when people in the Midwest and South are not afforded the same freedom.”
