would say that the constitutional amendment would say there is no guaranteed right to abortion in the kansas state constitution. so what that would do is if this passes, it would then open the door legislatively to new laws potentially restricting or outright banning abortion. this has been on the ballot this same state constitutional amendment in four other red states basically in the last decade. you could see it is passed in all of them. although it was close in west virginia in 2018. and there has been polling, there has been one poll here in kansas that showed this might actually be, it is a deeply red state, this might be close tonight. so i think we ll watch this one. 8:00 p.m. we ll get numbers out of kansas and take a few hours to get a sense of how things are turning out, going to be really interesting. in the kansas city suburbs in particular. democrats have said this is an issue that is going to activate voters, the over turning of roe v. wade. we might get a test to that t
epicenter of the battle over abortion rights and the folks that are going to be casting their ballots here today are going to be among the first in the nation to actually vote on this issue since the fall of roe v. wade. and on the ballot here is an amendment that would strip the kansas state constitution of the right to an abortion. now, if this passes, what happens to the future of abortion rights in kansas has been the subject of some heated debate. here s what we do know. if the amendment does pass, the power to take action on abortion would then move to the kansas state legislature which is heavily conservative. it would open the door to further restrictions or potentially a ban on abortion. there s an an all-out, get out the vote effort and early voting is up more than 200% compared to 2018. we ve been talking to abortion rights activists and proponents of this amendment who are against abortion rights and the stakes are high for both of
and even the yes or no vote, right, voting yes is a vote to strip the kansas state constitution from the right to an abortion, which then puts the power in the hands of the state legislature which has a republican super majority that then bans abortion as many abortion right activists fear voting no would keep the constitution as it is. so yes is essentially an anti-abortion vote. no is a vote in favor of abortion rights. so that in itself has been confusing for voters. but then yesterday kansasans received a misleading text message claiming a yes vote is a vote to protect a woman s right to choose, which is not the case and the group kansasans for constitutional freedom which is against this amemd slammed this text message saying the coalition behind this campaign is lying to kansasans, but the
really is the epicenter of the battle on abortion rights in the nation, and in just a couple of hours here opponents of the amendment will be gathered in this room to watch and to wait to learn the fate of abortion rights in this state. joy, the stakes could not be higher, because since the fall of roe many of these surrounding states have enacted all-out bans or significantly restricted abortions, so kansas has had women coming from missouri, from texas, from arkansas, oklahoma, seeking care here. the phones have about ringing non-stop at clinics, mostly from women outside of the state seeking this procedure here, so people are very much aware of that. and this amendment, to be clear about what it does. there s been confusion about the wording and when a yes vote means and what a no vote means. this amendment would strip the protection for abortion rights from the kansas state constitution. it would then put the power to
from the attorney general versus what s happening today in the state of kansas. residents are going to vote on this constitutional amendment that could determine the future of abortion rights in that state, talk us through this amendment and what s happening there. and how folks are feeling about it. well, yasmin, this is not just significant here in kansas, but those folks voting behind me today are among the first in the nation to actually cast a ballot on this abortion issue. and people here feel that those stakes are incredibly high, whichever side of the issue they fall on. what they re voting on is the value of both amendment. this amendment would strip protections from abortion rights from the kansas state constitution. the power would then be in the hands of the republican super majority in the state legislature to take action going forward so they could potentially enact more restrictions or as many abortion rights activists here fear, a