Votes are still being counted, but what’s looking like a margin of almost 20%, Kansans voted to keep abortion legal in their state. As I understand it, the Kansas constitution protects a woman’s reproductive rights, so an amendment to the Kansas state constitution which would have removed that protection was put on the ballot. Kansans overwhelmingly rejected it. This is Kansas. One of our blood red states where President Biden lost by almost 15% of the vote in 2020.
Meanwhile, in Indiana…
SB 1 moved to the Indiana House of Representatives where it was sent to the Committee on Courts and Criminal Code rather than the Committee on Public Health. Normally committee assignments are routine business and not challenged. Apparently there was a procedural move to vote on sending it to the the Committee on Public Health which failed on a mostly party line vote, 27-65. The committee amended the bill to reduce the time during which raped kids can get an abortion from 12 weeks to 10, added an exception to allow abortions where necessary to prevent a substantial permanent impairment of the physical health of the woman, deleted the notarized affidavit requirement, and eliminated abortion clinics as places where the procedure can be performed. The bill passed out of committee, as amended, on an 8-5 vote.
Once again, nobody likes this thing. The pro-choice camp obviously doesn’t have a lot of patience with state legislators moonlighting as gynecologists while the pro-life advocates with unnuanced “abortion = murder” beliefs are frustrated over any exceptions at all. Indiana legislators should probably take note of the Kansas vote to get an idea of how Hoosiers will react if they proceed down this path.
The first phase of the abortion issue going back to the states will be Republican overreach. (Todd Rokita for example making the abortion issue about 10 year old rape victims – how stupid was that?) Republicans who want to not include the three exceptions – rape, incest and life of the mother – or allow for first trimester abortion are going to end up getting punished at the polls.
Phase two will be Democrats, over confident from their electoral wins on the issue, overreaching. They will insist on unlimited right to abortion for 9 months. They will end up getting punished at the polls.
Both sides are going to, I shudder, have to compromise on the issue. The final product in most states is likely to be a law that includes the three exceptions and allowing for first trimester abortion. That’s where the public is and how most industrialized countries handle the issue when their legislature (not their courts) decided the issue. I would also point out that this policy does not reflect the holding of Roe which drew the line much later.
Democracy is a good thing. It’s how we resolve contentious public policy issues in this country. It acts as a pressure valve allowing people to blow off steam. Again, this is a good thing.
We’ll see. The result in Kansas surprised me and makes me more open to the idea that your initial comment on the post a week or two ago was correct.
I’m still skeptical. I think the Indiana legislature will drastically restrict abortion in the first trimester and will not pay enough of a legislative price to cause those reproductive rights to be restored. There will be suffering because of it.
I am not surprised by Kansas, I too think a reasonable compromise will be reached in most states because people are mostly moderate on this very complex issue but they don’t really talk about it. Now the conversation is being had at local/state levels where people have more political power instead of the federal level where we are just talking in the wind. Maybe a couple states will go scorched earth? But I am doubtful. Thanks Doug for reading the legal stuff, I have been diving in to see if national media on this matches actual state law, it’s mindnumbing! Would love to know more about the laws in each state.
On Indiana Week in Review your statement, “will not pay enough of a legislative price to cause those reproductive rights to be restored”, was more or less agreed upon by three of the four panelest. I know there are a few races that could be changed by the Kansas avalanche, I just don’t know if the Democrats know how to run competitive races anymore. Will the Senate decide to play hardball or they will play it safe and run with the state reps recommendations?
I know this sounds naive but wouldn’t both sides consult physicians before writing a piece of legislation of this importance?
We ignore the facts at our own peril! – Or as Heinlein put it more elegantly…
“Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and only the facts and to how many decimal places?”
My heart goes out to the women who will die, thanks to men that vote yes due to their imperious stupidity and ignorance..
Roman Catholicism is the largest of the three major branches of Christianity. Thus, all Roman Catholics are Christian, but not all Christians are Roman Catholic. Of the estimated 2.3 billion Christians in the world, about 1.3 billion of them are Roman Catholics. – This is the biggest
organized group we are fighting. – As Monty Python put itn’Every sperm (egg ) is sacred!’ — Well at least to the far right they both are! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzVHjg3AqIQ
Georgia’s abortion law goes further than any other fetal person hood provision. Called the Living Infants Fairness and Equality, or LIFE, Act, it prohibits abortion after six weeks and explicitly recognizes the fetus as a person
Things that politicians never think about?
Do you give a fetus its own court appointed attorney?
If a fetus is declared a person, then wouldn’t there have to be an investigation any time a woman has a miscarriage? so if any man brings emotional distress and stress to a pregnant woman leading to a miscarriage – then he is guilty of manslaughter. He didn’t intend to kill.
Did the mother do something (smoking, alcohol,drugs e.g.) or ignoring the doctors orders for bed rest that could have contributed to the miscarriage? Would it be reckless endangerment; involuntary manslaughter; voluntary manslaughter or worse?
Did I mention Georgia is going to give a $3000 state tax deduction on the fetus, does the mother or father get to claim the deduction?
Pure utter insanity!