Kansas voted this Tuesday in a referendum overwhelmingly in favor of keeping intact the right to abortion as it is currently regulated in the state Constitution, in a defeat for conservatives who sought to restrict it.
According to the projections of the main American media, with a 90 % of the vote counted, more than 60 % of voters rejected changing the state Constitution to restrict the right to abortion.
This is the first referendum that a US state celebrates after the Supreme Court ruling that annulled the ruling “Roe v. Wade”, which eliminated the federal right to abortion and gave states the power to legislate on the subject.
The consultation, which was held coinciding with the primary elections in the state this Tuesday, could have opened the door to that the state government legislate to restrict the right to abortion, which without embargo will now remain legal until 13 weeks.
It was a particularly relevant referendum because it could have set a precedent for other states.
Despite having a Democratic governor, Laura Kelly, the central state of Kansas has a long Republican tradition and this party controls the offices of the attorney general, the secretary of state, and both chambers of the state legislature.
Furthermore, Republicans also dominate presidential elections, and Donald Trump was the favorite presidential candidate in both last elections, with 56% of the votes.
This Tuesday’s referendum had been harshly criticized by civil organizations, who denounced that the text of the question was not clear enough, in an attempt to “misinform and confuse by part of those who oppose abortion”, according to the organization Planned Parenthood.
In the event that the “yes” to the constitutional reform had been imposed, the state legislature would have been in charge of approving laws about the procedure, that they could have opted for a greater restriction of times or exceptions or for a total ban, as is happening in other states.
Since the 24 in June, the Supreme Court -with a conservative majority of six judges against three progressives- will end the federal protection of the right to abortion (in force since 1973 thanks to the ruling “Roe v. Wade”), many women from states like Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri have traveled to Kansas to have an abortion, before the restrictions imposed in these states.
A few hours earlier this Tuesday, the US Attorney General, Merrick Garland, announced a lawsuit against the state of Idaho for considering that its law against abortion “criminalizes doctors” and prevents them from freely practicing terminations of pregnancy when the woman’s health is at risk.
The Department of Justice sued Idaho for violating the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Law, to try to protect doctors who have to intervene when the abortion is “the medical treatment necessary to stabilize the medical condition of patient emergency”.
This is the first action by the Department of Justice against a state since the Supreme Court ruling, and it will not be the only one, Garland himself explained at a press conference.
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