Freedoms
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In this conservative state, the referendum on abortion tilted 60% in favor of maintaining women’s rights. Hope for Democrats ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The liquidation of the constitutional right to abortion, pronounced at the end of June by the Supreme Court, had been presented by some as a triumph of democracy: by going back over half a century of case law, the judges were only giving the initiative back to the states and their popularly elected legislatures. On Tuesday, Kansas voters were invited to take them at their word, since the primaries organized for the midterm elections in November were accompanied by a referendum on this subject. Should the Constitution of this viscerally conservative state – and almost surrounded by neighbors (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri) where abortion is now prohibited, or is taking its path (Nebraska) – protect access to it or not?
Nobody in the United States had seen Kansas coming as a possible champion in such matters, and yet: at the end of a ferocious, costly, highly scrutinized campaign, nearly 60% of voters voted on Tuesday in favor of maintaining the guards in place. In this same state, where no Democratic presidential candidate has won since 1964, which had given Donald Trump more than fifteen points ahead of Joe Biden two years ago. The magnitude of the gap, an extraordinary turnout and the timing of the ballot, barely more than a month following the historic setback decided by the Supreme Court, ended up giving this result a national echo of exultation. . So much so that the White House did not even wait for the end of the count…