LETTER: The Kansas Anti-Abortion Amendment is a Shot Across the Bow

Our Supreme Court decided, against precedent, the abortion question was not a national issue, but belonged to individual states. So Kansas, the stereotypical red state eagerly shouldered the task.

A midterm election ensures low volume turnout with a 2 to 1 Republican registration advantage. Enhance this with misinformation campaigns and a strong push by the Catholic Church, what could possibly go wrong? Kansas is red. Lyndon Johnson was the last Democrat elected President selected by Kansans. It has been forever since Kansans have elected a Democrat US Senator.

41% of Kansans said “hell no.” Keep your male chauvinist pig laws off our female bodies. Well, in this off election more than 919,000 voters in a state of 3 million turned out. In some counties the “no” votes exceeded Trump’s 2020 vote totals. I went on a site containing county data and the volume by county was large enough to provide sampling models in all but 19 counties. In other words, even many of the small rural counties returned representative data (sufficient to meet statistical criteria for accuracy). Facts: bad news for anti-abortionists.

Do other states dare roll the dice?

So, what does this mean for a state like Iowa! It’s likely a similar vote here would be worse news for the right-to-lifers. This is a losing proposition for the small segment of the radical political spectrum which gained disproportionate influence in these days of anything goes politics.

How sincere are the politicians espousing anti-abortion? Or, how many are exploiting the situation. The right wing is built with this as a leg in its stool. A condition of belonging. Is our Governor and other politicians grounded in a conviction or would they go with the flow if conditions favored abortions (and ultimately their futures)?