2022 Kansas Value Them Both Amendment

rdf:langString 2022 Kansas Value Them Both Amendment

rdf:langString Value Them Both Amendment

rdf:langString Should there be no Kansas constitutional right to abortion or to require the government funding of abortion, and reserve to the people of Kansas, through their elected state legislators, the right to pass laws to regulate abortion, including, but not limited to, in circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or when necessary to save the life of the mother?

rdf:langString Kansas

rdf:langString Source: Secretary of State of Kansas

rdf:langString Value Them Both Amendment

rdf:langString Results by county For Against

rdf:langString The Value Them Both Amendment, also known as the VTB Amendment or Amendment 2, is a rejected legislatively referred constitutional amendment to the Kansas Constitution that appeared on the ballot on August 2, 2022, alongside primary elections for statewide offices, with early voting from July 13. If enacted, the amendment would have declared that the Kansas Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion, given the Kansas state government power to prosecute individuals involved in abortions, and further declared that the Kansas government is not required to fund abortions. The language of the bill — in which a "yes" vote would remove constitutional protections for abortion in all instances — was described as being intentionally misleading, due to the unpopularity of blanket restrictions on abortion. It was put on the ballot through a house resolution passed in early 2021 with the goal of superseding a decision by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2019 that the state constitution protected a woman's access to abortion. Being the first abortion-related constitutional amendment on the ballot since the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, political analysts have noted it to be a bellwether over Americans' view on abortion and in which many people seek abortion from nearby Republican-leaning states that are more restrictive on abortion access, such as Missouri and Oklahoma. They have also noted it to be the first of five abortion-related ballot measures in the US in 2022, with the others being held on Election Day (November 8) in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont. Because of this, the referendum has been widely covered by media outlets worldwide. The leading organization in favor of the measure's passage was the Value Them Both Association; the Catholic Dioceses in Kansas, and many evangelical Christian groups also supported the measure. The leading group against the measure was Kansans for Constitutional Freedom. Its passage would also be detrimental to the future of abortion in Kansas as Republicans could use its two-thirds supermajority to override a veto by Laura Kelly, the Democratic governor of Kansas, of an abortion ban or restriction that would be illegal under the 2019 state supreme court case. Saying that she opposed legislation that "interfered with a [woman's freedom]" to make "reproductive healthcare decisions [with] her physician", Kelly had faced a challenge in the concurrent gubernatorial election by Derek Schmidt, the Republican Attorney General who praised the overturn of Roe v. Wade and defended the state in the state court case. Had the ballot measure passed, and had Schmidt won the election, Republicans would theoretically only need a simple majority to pass such legislation. The amendment was ultimately defeated by an 18-point margin, which was attributed to higher-than-expected turnout and an increase in voter registration in the run-up to the referendum.