Abortion rights on the ballot: Can Kentucky do what Kansas did?

Earlier this year, Rachel Sweet ran the campaign that successfully defeated the anti-abortion ballot measure in Kansas which would’ve amended its state constitution to explicitly deny abortion rights to its residents. Now, Sweet is running another campaign to defeat a similar initiative in Kentucky. “For most voters it’s not a partisan issue,” she says. “If Kansas taught us anything, it’s that having an issue on the ballot where the voters can make their voices heard directly…really does activate and mobilize voters who typically don’t participate in the political process.” And there’s a lot on the line. Kentucky has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, which is being challenged in court right now. “The stakes could not be higher,” says Amber Duke of the ACLU Kentucky, one of the parties suing the state. And the outcome of this vote will directly affect what happens next with that lawsuit.