3 reasons why conservative Kansas voted to uphold abortion rights

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, August 03, 2022

Data shows Kansas is not an overwhelmingly pro-life state 

While Kansas overwhelmingly votes Republican in presidential elections, the Pew Research Center's 2014 Religious Landscape Survey revealed that state residents are evenly divided on abortion.

Specifically, the Pew Research Center found that 49% of Kansans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 49% think the procedure should be illegal in all or most cases. 

A poll taken shortly before Tuesday's referendum illustrated a division among likely Kansas primary voters about the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe. The survey, published July 18 by co/efficient, found that 49% of Kansas voters approved of the Dobbs decision compared to 46% who disapproved of it. 

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Other states that have held referendums asking voters whether or not they want to amend the state's constitution to clarify that there is no right to abortion contain much more pro-life electorates.

In 2018, Alabama voters approved a constitutional amendment protecting the rights of unborn children and rejecting the idea of a right to abortion by an 18-point margin, almost the inverse of the results of Kansas's Value Them Both Amendment. 

Pew's 2014 Religious Landscape Survey found that 58% of Alabamans want abortion illegal in all or most cases, while 37% support legal abortion in all or most cases.

Also, in 2018, West Virginia voters approved a similar amendment by a much narrower margin of less than four percentage points, even though Pew measured opposition to legal abortion in all or most cases at 58% while support for legal abortion in all or most cases was measured at 35%.

In 2020, 62% of Louisiana voters approved amending the state's constitution to stress that there is no right to abortion. Opponents of legal abortion in all or most cases outnumber supporters by 18 percentage points in Louisiana, according to Pew.