Experts had predicted that Kansas would follow the dictates of the United States Supreme Court and tear down the access to abortion enshrined in its Constitution since 2019. They were wrong. In one of those spine-chilling political twists, a majority of voters in this conservative Midwestern U.S. state voted on Tuesday to protect the right to abortion.
Nearly 60% of the 908,000 voters who took part in the referendum refused to change the state Constitution, closing the door to tougher regulations or a ban on abortion in this stronghold of the anti-abortion movement. American choice. At 47%, the participation rate exceeded expectations. The message reached well beyond the usual party lines. The rejection of the amendment highlights the division between, on the one hand, the wishes and actions of the Republican legislators, and, on the other hand, the inclinations of the American population. The latest polls place unequivocal support for abortion rights and women’s choice in reproductive health at just over 60%.
Three months before the mid-term elections, where abortion is already seen as an issue that will be crucial, Democrats and Republicans cannot ignore the strike force of the political message just sent. This referendum was the first to be held since the Supreme Court of the United States overturned, last June, the judgment Roe v. wade. Although we cannot trace a trend from this single upheaval, however surprising it may be, it will be interesting to see how other States could choose this formula of the referendum, which probes the soul of the population.
Kansas, whose Legislature is Republican but is governed by a Democrat, has nevertheless in the past been the scene of famous anti-abortion deployments, including the Summer of Mercy demonstration in 1991, which aimed to shut down all abortion clinics, and the 2009 assassination of Dr.r George Tiller, a doctor who specializes in late-term abortions, by an anti-choice extremist. The past does not guarantee the future.
While pro-choice activists are right to celebrate the Kansas result, as US President Joe Biden also did when he called on the American people “to use their voices to protect women’s right to health care, including abortion”, the improvement does not extend to a majority of American states, far from it. This glimmer of hope wavers.
The Supreme Court decision restored legislative responsibility for abortion rights to states. About 30 states are anti-choice; twentysomething, pro-choice. They try as best they can to ensure increased availability of services in clinics that perform pregnancy terminations to accommodate Americans from states prohibiting the practice. In the neighboring states of Kansas, women are without recourse. In Missouri and Oklahoma, the bans are almost total, with Missouri not even accepting rape or incest as grounds for resorting to intervention.
Criticized for the softness of his actions and reactions since the Supreme Court decision, President Biden clenches his fist.
He signed a decree on Wednesday – the second – intended to protect access to abortion. This time, he’s asking the United States Department of Health to find ways to support women who must leave state lines to access legal abortions. Medicaid, which covers healthcare costs for low-income Americans, could be an ideal stepping stone.
The president wants to alleviate the “chaos” caused by the Supreme Court’s decision. He alluded Wednesday to the serious case of this 10-year-old girl from Ohio who became pregnant following a rape that occurred last May. Since her state did not allow abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and she was past that stage, she traveled to nearby Indiana, which still allows the procedure up to 21 weeks of pregnancy. Indiana, however, shows increasingly hostile tendencies to abortion rights. Result: the doctor is threatened with prosecution by the state prosecutor.
The Biden administration also filed its first legal action since the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday, filing a lawsuit against an Idaho law that bans nearly all abortions, claiming it makes no exceptions for women. cases posing serious health hazards.
The escalation leading to the midterm elections does not promise only Kansas-style victories. But this week’s political test announces an unequivocal commitment from the population on this issue which will thwart traditional political divisions.
Democracy may not have said its last word.