As American Family News has explained, the "Value Them Both" amendment would have clearly stated that the Kansas Constitution does not contain a right to abortion and that tax dollars would not be used to terminate preborn children. That effort, however, was soundly defeated.
Neal Allen, department chair and associate professor of political science at Wichita State University, says even rural areas that heavily supported the pro-life former president turned down the amendment by a sizeable vote.
"I think it does show that Republicans and conservatives have some work to do in Kansas," Allen responds. "I think abortion rights might be a helpful issue for Democrats in Kansas, but I don't think it's going to make Kansas anything that you would really call a purple state at the statewide level."
He also suggests the Kansas election could have a ripple effect on other states like Kentucky, where voters are set to decide abortion-related issues.
"I expect they will pattern their work partly after the Kansas vote and also try to focus on a general individual rights message and try to connect it to voters' worries about government authority in general," Allen predicts.
Yahoo! claims the result of the abortion vote in The Sunflower State show the limits of the GOP's strength, but the political science professor notes that the pro-abortion side in Kansas successfully painted the amendment as government control and connected it to voters' generally negative evaluation of politicians right now.
