In two weeks, Kansans are set to be the first in the country to vote on abortion rights in the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning a constitutional right to an abortion.
While the vote has brought national attention to the state, the White House is staying silent.
Asked Monday if the White House sees the Aug. 2 Kansas vote as an indication for how voters will respond to the Dobbs decision, in which the Supreme Court overturned the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed abortion rights across the country, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre punted on the significance of the specific ballot question.
“I can’t speak directly to any specific elections,” Jean-Pierre said.
Instead, she reiterated that the administration expects abortion rights supporters to show up on Election Day and that Biden is looking into ways he can use the presidency to protect abortion rights.
“So the president has been very clear that Americans get their voices heard and take it to the ballot box,” Jean-Pierre said. “That is the way we’re going to see real change, that is how we can use our political power.”
In the wake of last month’s decision, Democrats have pointed to campaign donations, increased voter registration and passionate protests throughout the country as a signal that their voters will be motivated to vote in November. If true, it would potentially help the party maintain the coalition it built during the administration of former President Donald Trump, which relied heavily on the support of suburban women.
Kansans will vote in August on whether to add an amendment to the Kansas Constitution declaring there is no guaranteed right to an abortion in the state, an election that has taken on higher stakes in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling.
Called “Value them Both” by its supporters, it would undo a 2019 ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court that has helped make Kansas a destination for women seeking to get an abortion in surrounding states, like Missouri, where the procedure is banned.
Both sides have been working for months to rally their voters, with supporters of the amendment saying it is necessary to maintain current restrictions on abortion in the state and opponents saying the amendment will pave the way for the Republican-controlled Legislature to institute a statewide ban.
The fact that the first vote on the issue is coming in Kansas — a conservative-leaning state with a long history on abortion rights that includes an entire summer of anti-abortion protests and the assassination of a prominent abortion doctor — complicates the Biden administration’s midterm messaging that abortion will be a watershed issue in the midterm elections.
While there is strong support for abortion rights in the Kansas City suburbs and some cities, the vote will serve as a test for whether the abortion rights movement has been galvanized with the strength that anti-abortion activists have flexed in elections for years.
On Monday, Jean-Pierre also referenced a report from Texas, where a woman was unable to receive a medical procedure for an abortion in attempt to highlight what she said was a Republican attack on women’s rights.
She also expressed concern that Republicans would attempt to pass a federal ban on abortion.
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