In this week’s midterms, Kentucky voters rejected a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would have specified the document doesn’t provide a right to an abortion. Approving the amendment would have made legal challenges to abortion restrictions passed by the state legislature only more difficult.
Kentucky legislators have banned abortion throughout the entirety of pregnancy, with rare exceptions available only for serious health concerns. Health exceptions have their own problems and aren’t exactly models of compassion. Questions could linger about whether a given case is serious enough to allow for the procedure, and in the time spent deliberating, a pregnant individual could face dangerous complications. Challenges to the total abortion ban currently in effect in Kentucky are currently pending before the state Supreme Court, which previously let the restrictions remain while considering arguments. If the amendment was approved, that could have closed off possibilities of the court concluding in favor of those challenging the restrictions. It could have also essentially green-lit additional restrictions, such as enhanced penalties.
With what The New York Times identified as an estimated 88 percent of the vote counted, 52.6 percent of Kentuckians weighing in on the proposed amendment opposed it, while only 47.4 percent were in support. The measure was added to this year’s general election ballots before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, clearing the way for additional restrictions and bans on access to abortion at the state level. The total abortion ban currently in effect in Kentucky was also first enacted before the court overturned that prior ruling. Like the restrictions currently affecting millions of people who could become pregnant elsewhere, the Kentucky ban was a so-called trigger measure, designed to become active if Roe was, in fact, overturned.
Amber Duke, who serves as interim executive director for the ACLU of Kentucky, pointed to the impact on personal freedom. “The people of Kentucky have spoken and their answer is no –- no to extremist politicians banning abortion and making private medical decisions on their behalf,” she said. In other states, voters also decided on abortion-related policy measures in the midterms, including a proposed amendment to the state Constitution in California providing protections for the procedure. Abortion is already broadly available in California, but adding those protections to the state’s guiding document could make those protections more difficult to undercut. Although a lot of votes remained, the Associated Press already called the question for the “yes” side, with some two-thirds of Californians among the ballots tabulated so far supporting the amendment. There was also a proposed state constitutional amendment protecting abortion in Vermont, and that measure also passed, with over three-fourths of voters in support.
Image: Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons
