Abortion is one of those issues that are difficult, because it evokes strong emotions on both sides, as prospective mothers who find their situations difficult, socially or medically, demand a safe and respectable ‘out’, while those who think of abortion as ‘killing a baby’ are understandably upset. Intellectually it can be confusing as well, as a life is created and then is sustained at the heavy, even deadly, expense of the vitality of the pregnant woman. Evaluating such a situation a priori is a headache due to subjective factors involved, particularly those masquerading as being connected to Divine opinions.
So it’s best to remember that American law and morality, as much as the clerics and their followers may wish to dispute it, are a consensual matter, as befits a liberal democracy. We have an honest discussion, come to a conclusion in which everyone who wishes contributes, and make laws, or not, based on those conclusions.
So what happened in yesterday’s various primaries that might be of interest?
Kansas had a state Constitutional Amendment proposal on the ballot that would “… affirm there is no Kansas constitutional right to abortion or to require the government funding of abortion, and would reserve … the right to pass laws to regulate abortion.” If it didn’t pass? Then the Consitution, as currently formulated “… could restrict the people … from regulating abortion by leaving in place the recently recognized right to abortion.”
It was added to a primary ballot in which there was no pitched battles on the Democratic side, only the Republicans’ side, thus theoretically not likely to bring out many Democratic voters. Democratic voters in Kansas, I might add.
And then there appears to have been a conservative-led attempt to mislead voters:
The text claimed that approving that measure, which could allow the Republican-controlled legislature to outlaw abortion, would safeguard “choice.” If the amendment fails, constitutional protections would remain in place, buttressing current law that allows abortion in the first 22 weeks of pregnancy.
“Women in KS are losing their choice on reproductive rights,” the text warned. “Voting YES on the Amendment will give women a choice. Vote YES to protect women’s health.”
The unsigned messages were described as deceptive by numerous recipients, including former Democratic governor Kathleen Sebelius, who also served as health and human services secretary in the Obama administration. She told The Washington Post that she was “stunned to receive the message, which made clear there was a very specific effort to use carefully crafted language to confuse folks before they would go vote.” …
But the messages were crafted by a political action committee led by Tim Huelskamp, a former hard-line Republican congressman from Kansas, and enabled by a fast-growing, Republican-aligned technology firm, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the advertising blitz. The people and groups behind the campaign have not been previously reported. [WaPo]
For a lot of observers, this has a flavor of an Expected maneuver, at least on the left, while on the right, Erick Erickson doesn’t even mention it, at least not in his non-subscriber postings. Did any others?
And what was its fate?
Kansans rejected the Amendment.
Overwhelmingly. Last number I heard was by 18 points.
From polls and from nurses’ anecdotes, from votes on Constitutional amendments, it’s becoming clear that the conservatives have lost the argument at the bedrock of liberal democracies: the attempt to convince their fellow citizens.
But they persist in attempting to change the law and in getting out over their ski tips. And how about a little thumb on the scales? Oh, sure, that’s OK, too.
I think it’s time, it’s past time, that they acknowledge that, on abortion, most Americans disagree to some degree with them. The law should reflect the sober discussions, vs the unsettled irrational passions for which the Bill of Rights and Amendments exist to restrain, of the citizenry, not those passions that have been fanned by power seekers.
These politicians who compete on the metric of who can be most extreme should, for the sake of the Nation, read the hint that’s being thrust in their faces.
