There is in Kansas “conservative voters who think that this freedom must be preserved” of the right to abortion, said, Wednesday, August 3 on franceinfo, Nicole Bacharan, political scientist and historian, specialist in the United States. Voters in Kansas, in the American Midwest, voted on Tuesday for the maintenance of the constitutional guarantee on abortion. This is the first major vote on abortion since the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the federal right to abortion. According to Nicole Bacharan, “it’s a major setback” for anti-abortionists, but it’s not “the end of the game”.
franceinfo: What exactly does this Kansas decision mean?
Nicole Bacharan: This is the first popular vote on this issue of abortion since the Supreme Court made possible the ban on abortion in this country. The vote is final. 59% of Kansas citizens want abortion to remain legal in their state. And when we know that it is a conservative state, it shows us that the question of abortion is also a question of health.
>> INFOGRAPHICS. Abortion in the United States: the decision of the Supreme Court, the final stage of fifty years of attacks against abortion
For a little over a month and this decision by the Supreme Court, we have seen all sorts of information and aspects of this issue emerge, which show in particular the danger for women and the difficulties for doctors in treating correctly, properly , women who have complicated pregnancies, which can lead them to decide on an abortion even if it was not what they wanted. We see that there are conservative voters in Kansas who still think that this freedom must be preserved.
Is this a major setback for anti-abortionists?
It’s a big setback but it’s not the end of the game for them. We saw how galvanized they were by the Supreme Court decision, how much they wanted to go from the possibility of banning to a sweeping ban in all 50 states, with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest of very Girls.
“In this campaign in Kansas, each movement, for and against, has spent twelve million dollars. You can see that the two movements are galvanized.”
Nicole Bacharanat franceinfo
When voters have the opportunity to vote not in general for Governor Doe or Senator What’s-his-name, but really on abortion, the position of American citizens is more nuanced than the Supreme Court would like.
How can this have an impact on other states, and in particular the neighboring states of Kansas?
What we notice is that the neighboring states of Kansas currently have very harsh restrictions on abortion.
“For about two months, the abortions that are done in Kansas have been treating women who come from Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska. It is, at present, a refuge.”
Nicole Bacharanat franceinfo
What happened with yesterday’s vote is that the abortion protection enshrined in the local Constitution, that of Kansas, is upheld. But that does not prevent the Kansas Parliament from debating, from voting, with perhaps greater restrictions. It’s not over. But in the Kansas Constitution, the right to abortion remains protected.
Will this comfort Joe Biden when, 100 days before the vote in the midterm elections, his popularity is at an all-time low?
It won’t harm him. Many voters, many women, who want the right to abortion to be maintained, will vote Democrat. But will this mobilize them sufficiently towards the president’s party? It doesn’t really take that long. Because in November, there will be the question of inflation, the question of the price of gasoline, the price of energy, the war in Ukraine. And when you vote for a candidate for such and such a position, the vote is a little drowned in lots of other priorities. But when there is a referendum question on abortion, there, we see what the voters really think.