Voters in the red state overwhelmingly rejected a referendum designed to overturn Kansas’ constitutional right to abortion on Tuesday.
The Legislature’s GOP supermajority had attempted to amend the Kansas constitution to change the way the state’s Supreme Court justices are chosen. It was an effort to fill the bench with more conservatives after a slate of rulings that roiled Republican lawmakers, most notably a 2019 decision upholding the right to abortion.
Voters dismissed that amendment by more than 25 percentage points.
Tuesday’s result is reminiscent of the state’s 2022 referendum, months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, which saw Kansas voters uphold abortion rights by nearly 20 percentage points. It indicates that access to the procedure remains a salient political issue years later.
Kansas borders several states that ban abortion and has become a destination for women seeking the procedure.
The state’s rejection of the measure comes the same day leaked audio emerged of a private call in which Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, told a religious group that the White House is working “to get permanent solutions so the Dobbs decision becomes permanent in every single state.”
Opponents of the measure had worried that if the referendum was successful, it could inspire other states to follow — potentially setting up a nationwide judicial arms race.
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