Abortion will be on the ballot when Kansans head to the polls on Tuesday.
Voters in Kansas will have the opportunity to override a 2019 state supreme court ruling that found a declaration in the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights about “equal and inalienable rights” applied to abortion “rights,” despite there being no actual right to abortion in the state constitution.
The constitutional amendment, if approved, would return the power to regulate abortion to state lawmakers, three years after the state court found that the aforementioned declaration meant that any restriction on abortion must be subjected to strict scrutiny.
The primary day vote on abortion is open to both unaffiliated Kansans as well as those who are registered with a party.
Co/efficient, a Kansas City-based pollster, found 47 percent of Kansans planned to vote “yes” on the amendment, while 43 percent said they planned to vote no and 10 percent were undecided just two weeks before Election Day. The survey of more than 1,500 Kansans had a margin of error of 2.78 percent. The polling firm is predicting that the state will narrowly pass the constitutional amendment.
Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, the group leading the campaign to maintain the pro-abortion status quo, raised $6.54 million from January 1, 2021 to July 18, 2022, 71 percent of which came from out-of-state. Meanwhile, the Value Them Both Campaign, which is leading the pro-amendment movement, raised $4.69 million over the same period, less than 1 percent of which came from out-of-state, the Federalist first reported.
Mike Kuckelman, chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, told the New York Times that “it appears the ‘Yes’ vote still has the lead, but that has narrowed.”
“A lot of that is because, I think, the Dobbs decision has incited the pro-choice forces to come out,” he said, referring to the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe.
Kansas had seen a 246 percent increase in early in-person voter turnout as of Thursday compared to the 2018 midterm primary elections.
The office of Kansas secretary of state Scott Schwab, a Republican, told the Times that the constitutional amendment “has increased voter interest in the election.” Schwab predicted that roughly 36 percent of Kansas voters would vote in this year’s primary, a slight increase from the 2020 primary.
The Times suggested that the results of the vote in the Third District of Kansas, home to one of the country’s most competitive congressional seats, will offer a test of how the overturn of Roe v. Wade is being received in suburban swing territory.
“How much of a motivator is it really?” Democratic strategist Dan Sena said of abortion.
“How does it actually, when it’s by itself, move women, move portions of the electorate? And this will really give us insight and the opportunity to get an answer to that,” Sena told the paper.
While Democrats have suggested the overturning of Roe will bring voters out to the polls in the midterms, just 8 percent of likely swing state voters said abortion is a top issue for them going into the midterms, according to a new Cygnal poll commissioned by the Republican State Leadership Committee in late June.
Meanwhile, 37 percent of respondents said high cost of living and inflation are their top concern, according to the poll, which was conducted on June 25 and 26 among likely general election voters in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
Sixteen percent cited the economy in general as the most important issue, while 9 percent said crime is their biggest priority.
Just 30 percent of likely voters said a candidate’s position on abortion is the absolute most important issue to them, the poll found. Sixty-five percent said there are other issues that are a higher priority when choosing who to support in November.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include additional context about a 2019 Kansas state supreme court ruling.