Kansas shows anti-abortion Republicans how voters react when you go after their rights

Rex Huppke, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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So it turns out that when you try to take away a right that a majority of people don’t want taken away, voters sometimes turn out in huge numbers and ruin your “Yay! We Took Away Your Rights!” party.

That’s the tough lesson Republicans learned Tuesday night in Kansas, as voters in this deeply red state refused to carry on the GOP’s wayward anti-abortion crusade, resoundingly defeating a referendum that would have stripped away abortion protections in the state.

The vote was accompanied by a turnout far greater than expected for a primary, with Kansas’ secretary of state saying: “It's looking a lot like the 2008 turnout for the Obama presidential race. So it's incredibly high turnout.”

Not what the GOP was expecting

Celebrating in Overland Park, Kansas, that voters upheld abortion rights 61%-39% on Aug. 2, 2022.
Celebrating in Overland Park, Kansas, that voters upheld abortion rights 61%-39% on Aug. 2, 2022.

This was not at all how things were supposed to go for anti-abortion Republicans after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. Convinced their policies are in line with American voters, GOP politicians have raced to out-extreme one another on the issue of abortion. A federal ban! No exceptions for rape or incest! No crossing state lines for abortions!

Then these Kansas ballot-casters came along and messed everything up with a vote that effectively said, “The 1950s called, they want their patriarchal ideas of women’s rights back.”

Longing for a return to ‘simpler times’? Here’s what the 1950s were like.

Thank goodness for antiquated traditions and midterm elections

If only Americans would let politicians and activists implement the policies they want without insisting on opposing those policies through antiquated traditions like “voting.”

The electoral thumping in the Sunflower State now draws into question prevailing wisdom that Republicans will trounce Democrats in November’s midterm elections, allowing them to tackle issues crucial to all Americans, like launching 37 investigations into Hunter Biden and making sure nobody ever says the word “gay” out loud.

President Joe Biden's son Hunter was the focus of Republican complaints during the presidential campaign for business dealings with Ukraine and China, and U.S. prosecutors are investigating his tax affairs. But Hunter Biden hasn't been charged.
President Joe Biden's son Hunter was the focus of Republican complaints during the presidential campaign for business dealings with Ukraine and China, and U.S. prosecutors are investigating his tax affairs. But Hunter Biden hasn't been charged.

Primary elections: Michigan's tests Trump’s role as Republicans' anointer-in-chief

If the issue of abortion rights can bring out an outsized number of voters in Kansas for an August primary, what kind of turnout might we see in November in states where crucial races will determine control of the House and Senate?

Who could've seen this coming, other than everyone?

Will the conservative base, emboldened by the long-sought-after overturning of Roe v. Wade, push candidates to profess support for a federal abortion ban? If so, every Republican candidate will get pushed into a corner on this issue. That was likely before the Kansas primary result, and now it’s both likely and a potentially huge problem for the party.

If only there had been some signs that Americans strongly support a woman’s right to an abortion. Some kind of … poll, if you will, showing little tolerance for harsh restrictions on abortion rights. If only anti-abortion Republicans had known that the same people telling them they don’t want their rights taken away also have the ability to get mad and cast votes.

Ah, well. We all make mistakes.

I still think about what might have been: I was a teen when my girlfriend said she was pregnant.

Anti-abortion Republicans may find they've dug themselves a deep hole

I was hesitant to say it before Tuesday night’s results in Kansas, but I’ll say it now: I don't think Republicans have reckoned with what they’ve uncorked in this country.

USA TODAY reported that Kansas saw voter registration surge after Roe was overturned in June. Notably, 70% of Kansans who registered to vote are women, according to analysis by TargetSmart, a nonpartisan political data organization.

A sign in a yard in Merriam, Kansas, in July 2022 urges voters to oppose a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution to allow legislators to further restrict or ban abortion.
A sign in a yard in Merriam, Kansas, in July 2022 urges voters to oppose a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution to allow legislators to further restrict or ban abortion.

That doesn’t suggest a demographic happy with where things are heading.

Democrats still face strong headwinds going into November. But if Kansas ends up a bellwether for turnout in the midterms or an indicator of voter anger, Republican "leaders" might find they tried to pull the country in a direction it didn’t want to go: Backwards.

More from Rex Huppke:

Lower gas prices, the PACT Act and other ways Democrats are being mean to Republicans

A speech anti-same-sex-marriage Republicans can give at same-sex weddings: 'I was never here'

Is 'wokeness' responsible for US and European heat waves? Absolutely.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Facebook: facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kansas abortion amendment defeated by voters. Be warned, Republicans.