Kansans secured an enormous win for abortion rights in the US on Tuesday night when they voted to continue to protect abortion in the state constitution.
It was the first electoral test of the issue since the US Supreme Court allowed states to ban the procedure.
The move will be seen as a huge loss for the anti-abortion movement and a major win for abortion rights advocates across America, who will see the result as a bellwether for popular opinion.
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Kansas, a deeply conservative and usually reliably Republican state – is the first US state to put abortion rights to a vote since the Supreme court ruled to overturn constitutional protections for abortion in late June.
Kansas is a red state, with more than 851,000 registered Republican and more than 495,000 registered Democrats, according to monthly data from the Kansas secretary of state’s office as of July.
Democrats across the nation cheered the outcomes on Tuesday, including US President Joe Biden.
Kansas Republicans have been lobbying for a state constitutional amendment to eliminate abortion rights since the Kansas Supreme Court determined in 2019 that the state constitution retained the right to abortion.
Kansas’ ballot initiative is the first of several this year that will ask US voters to vote on abortion rights. This fall, abortion will be on the ballot in Kentucky, California, Vermont, and possibly Michigan.
