The Kansans for Life, Kansas churches, and others have worked hard at funding their anti-choice campaign, with Kansas Catholic churches alone kicking in more than $750,000. The message they send through their TV ads lately has been simple and acknowledges the problem they face. People are not in favor of outright bans on abortion if the issue is put to them at the ballot box. How to get around that problem? Confuse the issue. In recent ads, the Value Them Both anti-abortion ads have focused on the concept that no, this really isn’t about ending abortion in Kansas, and anyone who says that is just fearmongering.
This shift clearly comes after the United States Supreme Court ruling has made this a top-of-mind issue for many voters walking to the ballot box. Republicans may not be following the message being sent over the airwaves.
The Kansas Reflector was able to find an audio address to the Reno County Republican Party. What happened? Speaking to the committee, a regional director for the Value Them Both coalition, Lori Chrisman, pointed out that they already have a piece of legislation, HB 2746, from the current session that would be reintroduced, effectively banning abortion. The legislation was originally put forward by Fort Scott Republican Trevor Jacobs and would ban abortion from fertilization to birth under all circumstances. The legislation does allow for stillbirths, ectopic pregnancies, and completion of a miscarriage; however, the legislation provides absolutely no exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
The ad war in Kansas remains fierce, with over $10 million total going into the ad campaign. While anti-choice campaigns seem to offer fairly, ahem, strange claims, they cannot deny the claims make it clear what they really want.
The Kansas Value Them Both coalition has said they let Chrisman go, but it that does not undo the fact that the legislators behind the constitutional amendment have exactly one goal: banning abortion access in Kansas.
The vote on Kansas Amendment 2 is on the Aug. 2 special election, where all individuals, whether they are unaffiliated or aligned with a party, may vote to preserve access to reproductive care in Kansas.
The more we learn about Kansas Amendment 2, the easier it is to see through the smokescreen.
Sign the petition to the US Senate: Reform the filibuster and protect our reproductive freedom!