Kansas Abortion Vote Offers First Test of New Post-Roe Battleground: State Constitutions

As the heat index topped 100 degrees in Johnson County on Saturday, dozens of canvassers fanned out over affluent suburbs to knock on strangers’ doors and talk about an emotional, fraught, and, in many cases, very personal issue: the Kansas constitution. The state’s voters are being asked to amend its constitution to explicitly say that it does not contain a right to abortion. The ballot measure, which was first proposed in 2020, is intended to undo a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that found that right was implicitly part of the state’s governing document. The Aug. 2 vote will mark the first time the issue of abortion has been on the ballot since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It also represents a new frontier in the fight over abortion access: the battle over state constitutions. Rachel Sussman, the vice president of state policy and advocacy at Planned Parenthood, tells TIME that for the foreseeable future, access to abortion is going to play out “singularly” at the state level. “That is going to be amending state constitutions, pushing state statutory protections for abortion, and going to the ballot and bringing some of these issues directly to the public,” she says. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Arin Yoon for TIMEA volunteer with Students for Life of America canvassing in Olathe on July 23. While canvassers...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized 2022 Midterm Elections abortion Health Care Voting Source Type: news