Tea-leaf reading is widespread, but don't read too much. In Kansas, a ballot initiative that would have made a sweeping abortion ban possible was voted down. Some pundits are pointing to it as evidence of trouble for the conservatives, Kansas having a decidedly Rightward lean.
I don't know. Many red states have put very draconian restrictions on abortion now that Roe v. Wave has been swept away. These laws leave very little room for individual choice. Kansas voters have kept such restrictions as already existed in place -- and otherwise left prospective mothers to make up their own minds. They didn't throw the door wide open.
Abortion is a very personal matter. It hinges on religion and moral beliefs, on personal and societal ethics, on when, precisely, you think a fetus is a person. These are matters the law has difficulty addressing with nuance. Kansas voters didn't necessarily vote in favor of abortion, they voted in favor of being allowed to make their own decisions -- and letting their fellow citizens do so, too.
Readers may have strong feelings about this, and I expect to get a few serious comments on religion and philosophy. The actual issue is how much right we have to impose our own beliefs on others. And that's what people voted on in Kansas, and by a large margin.
If the "yes" side had not tried to fill our breakfast bowls with Buffalo chips, they might have won. You don't get to say it just returns authority to the legislature when there was a bill filed during the last session that indicated exactly what that legislature would do and gave the "no" side all their talking points. All the "no" side had to do was say HB2746 three times a day every day until the election. The "yes" side was successful in bringing out Rural Democrats and Independents to the polls solely to vote "no".
ReplyDeleteI am in Kansas. I do wonder what the vote would be were we given a chance to vote on the many strictures in place on abortion. We only get to vote on proffered state constitutional amendments. The state legislature put the strictures in place. I am reminded, however, that Kansas was admitted to the United States as a free state*, the anti-slavery faction eventually won an anti-slavery constitution for the state - admitted as a state in 1861.
ReplyDeleteYou have my encouragement to implement your "stay on the subject" policy if you feel I've strayed - not that you need my encouragement!
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* history.com/this-day-in-history/kansas-enters-the-union
Wikipedia's article on Kansas has a listing of references.