US Kansas votes to protect abortion rights

In a conference room at the Sheraton in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, people screamed, whooped, cheered and cried as a vote to protect abortion rights in Kansas’s state constitution came down late last Tuesday night. And it wasn’t just Democrats. James Quigley, 72, a retired doctor and a Republican from Johnson county, sat on his own drinking a glass of white wine after hearing the news. “Abortion is a much more nuanced issue than anti-choice individuals would have you think,” he told the Guardian. “It is deeply personal, sometimes tragic, but also sometimes a liberating decision – and we should trust women, their physicians and their God on that.”

The result had been eagerly awaited, as Kansas was the first state in the country to put abortion rights on the ballot since Roe v Wade, which federally guaranteed them, was overturned by the supreme court.

The victory – and its sheer scale in a usually reliably Republican and socially conservative state like Kansas – has sent shock waves through the US and provided a shot in the arm for efforts to protect abortion rights.

It was a dirty fight, made murkier by the referendum being phrased so that a “yes” vote would, counterintuitively, have overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the state.

At the Eudora community centre in Douglas county, Patrick Perry, 43, a mechanic and registered Republican, said he was voting no. A veteran who had fought in Iraq, he said his wife needed an abortion in a medical emergency that would have otherwise taken her life. But he didn’t expect Kansas to side with him. “We’re a Republican state,” he said. “And we don’t generally vote that way.”

But on a night of huge turnout, Kansas voted to protect abortion in the state’s constitution, with the no vote securing 59% , against 41% for the anti-abortion movement.

The Democratic congresswoman Sharice Davids told the audience of about 100 people gathered on the night: “The [supreme court] decision definitely felt like a gut punch to a lot of people in our community … But we stood up and got to work.”

All eyes in the room were on a television projection blaring MSNBC’s elections statistics guru Steve Kornacki. People cheered whenever a county’s no vote was called.

“Imagine how good we are going to feel when we beat the anti-abortion movement and the Republicans, who lied at every turn,” state congresswoman Stephanie Clayton said.

“I feel really good right now,” said Leslie Butsch, who had tears in her eyes by 8.30pm. She was watching as the vote in Johnson county first showed signs of leaning heavily towards no, after weeks of spending her evenings knocking on doors there. An hour later, she was one of the few people without a drink in her hand – she’d just spent all her cash tipping the bar staff in a flurry of happiness.

“I feel overwhelmed with gratitude. Today we learned that organisers are more powerful than ever. We did the impossible,” she said.

State senator Dinah Sykes burst into tears when the vote was called. “It’s just amazing. It’s breathtaking that women’s voices were heard and [that] we care about women’s health,” she said.

Ashley All, the spokesperson for KCF (Kansans for Constitutional Freedom), said the success of their campaign was testament to nonpartisanship – and other states should take heed. “It will be interesting for other states to watch this, and see this is not a partisan issue,” she said.

Joe Biden made a statement on the result. “Voters in Kansas turned out in record numbers to reject extreme efforts to amend the state constitution to take away a woman’s right to choose and open the door for a statewide ban,” the president said.

“This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should have the right to make their own healthcare decisions.”

Meanwhile, the defeated anti-abortion group Kansans for Life emailed supporters, sharing their dismay. “The mainstream media propelled the left’s false narrative, contributing to the confusion that misled Kansans about the amendment,” it said, and vowed to fight on. “Our movement and campaign have proven our resolve and commitment. We will not abandon women and babies.”

‘This vote makes clear most Americans agree women should have access to abortion’ Joe Biden President