It appears Gov. Laura Kelly doesn’t want her campaign to ride the tailwinds of the cataclysmic Aug. 2 vote that preserved Kansas women’s reproductive rights.
Though the outcome proved the majority of Kansans are not aligned with their legislators’ repressive abortion policies, the Kelly campaign is not promoting her role in protecting abortion rights.
That’s a shame. Because she’s been instrumental.
Both as a legislator and as a governor, Kelly has fought for those rights.
Shortly after she took office as governor in 2019, Republican legislators passed a dangerous measure requiring doctors to tell patients that medication-induced abortions can be reversed — a practice not endorsed by the medical community.
Kelly vetoed the measure, citing not only its dangers to women’s health but also that legislators have no business wading into a woman’s reproductive affairs.
“This is unnecessary legislation that would interfere with the relationship between women and their physicians,” Kelly said at the time. “It forces health care providers to adhere to a government mandate not adequately supported by medical science.”
Republicans fell only one vote short in the House of overruling Kelly’s veto.
Later that year, they crafted legislation that put the measure on this summer’s primary ballot asking voters to overturn the Kansas Constitution’s abortion protections.
Men and women saw the measure as a usurpation of personal rights and overwhelmingly defeated the measure.
So yes, it’s emotional. It’s personal. And as such, it moved voters to come out in double the numbers of a typical primary election.
More than 922,000 Kansas — just over 47% of registered voters — voted on the abortion measure. That turnout is typical of a November general election. Of those, 180,000 were not affiliated with any political party, and as such are generally prevented from voting in a primary election. Measures to change the state constitution, however, are open to all voters, regardless of their affiliation with a political party.
Two things to note:
1. After a majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices voted this summer to overturn Roe v. Wade and deny women federal protection to access safe and legal abortions, more women and more young people began registering to vote. In Kansas, 70% of new voter registrations after the high court’s decision were women. Nationwide, about 30% of new voter registrations are by those age 25 and younger.
2. Kelly’s opponent in the race for governor, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, was for eliminating the state’s constitutional protections for abortion rights. After the results of the vote, he said that all along he has favored exceptions. That should be no consolation. If he is elected governor, Schmidt could be expected to rubber stamp further restrictions. As a legislator, he always voted to further restrict a woman’s access to abortion.
IN HER campaign against Schmidt, Kelly is vying for Republican votes by focusing on the state’s now-robust economy, her commitment to fully funding public education, her administration’s efforts in bringing a record number of new investments and industries to the state, and her proposal to eliminate the sales tax on food, which legislators enacted effective January 2023.
During these times of high inflation, Kelly’s successes no doubt are making a positive difference to our pocketbooks and especially bode well for the future.
