What’s the Matter with Kansas on Abortion?

BUCK: Kansas is another story, unfortunately, after last night and what we saw there, and it is disheartening. Now, there’s a lot of moving parts here. Now, Kansas went overwhelmingly in the last election for Donald Trump, and Kansas is a red state. But the state Supreme Court of Kansas had found in the state constitution, I believe, a right to abortion, and the only way to change this was — and this is why they had a ballot measure that was voted on last night.

The only way they would change this to be an amendment to the state constitution of Kansas. And this had to do with whether or not you could regulate abortion at all. Now, the way that this was framed is something that we’re gonna have to pay very close attention to. Because what was essentially going on here was the pro-abortion side of the argument… I mean, they call themselves “pro-choice.”

They were saying, “Well, they want ban all abortions.” Well, really the referendum was just saying that the Roe regime should not have a companion-level understanding at the state court for the state of Kansas. The legislature should be able to pass laws to regulate abortion, but it was pitched to people as they just want to take away all abortion and there’s gonna be no exceptions and it’s gonna be very extreme.

To overcome something that is in a state constitution based on judicial interpretation — and I know we’re kind of getting deep into this here, and I was reading about this last night to make sense of it all. It’s gonna be hard to do that with a referendum. You’re already going uphill. Plus, you have the enormous abortion lobby nationwide that really wanted to establish a victory here. Money matters a lot in a state of referendum.

It’s not a candidate. It’s just the issue, how the issue is presented to people. So this was a loss, a pretty big loss, unfortunately, in the state of Kansas. It failed by a margin of, let’s say, roughly 63 to 37%, something along those lines as I was looking at it last night, and so there was a 2019 decision in which the Kansas Supreme Court found a right to abortion, as I was saying, in the state constitution, which was drafted in 1859.

There is no right. It’s almost like Roe created the basis, the crappy determination by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, and then had this aftereffect of the state court in 2019 in Kansas says, “Well, we also see in our state constitution a right to abortion.” So this is why they had to get a constitutional amendment. This is what led to the referendum, and they were going to be getting rid of…

So it turns into the rhetoric around is, “They’re taking away your rights! Why are they taking away your right in the state of Kansas to an abortion?” You say, “Well, hold on a second. As with Roe, there never was a right to abortion in the state of Kansas in the constitution. Some judge made it up.” But you see, it’s the same game that was played out nationally where they just lost but now this was at a state level.

They adopted language here that was meant to obscure the issue. Kansans for Constitutional Freedom was one of the groups in favor of abortion in this case, obviously. “Oh, the state constitution says you have a right to abortion. We’re the freedom people for abortion!” Now, this is not a moment of panic ’cause a lot of other states don’t have this. If you didn’t have the already decided 2019 abortion was in the Kansas constitution adopted in 1859, you wouldn’t be running uphill in this way.

But here’s why I bring it up. This is where it’s gonna be very hard for the pro-life movement. I shouldn’t say “very hard.” Have to be very careful in the pro-life movement to see that this is now in the realm of politics. The argument since Roe has been focused, one, on the wrongness of Roe as a decision, but also on the moral case here, the moral clarity of “it is a baby in the womb, this is another human being; we must overturn Roe to protect this baby.”

That has gotten an enormous win as a result of the case — the Dobbs decision — this past June. Okay. But now it goes to the states, right? It’s not a nationwide ban on abortion, despite all the freak-out from the libs about this. California is gonna have very permissive, very expansive abortion laws. New York, other states as well. You see that. In places where it is contested like in Kansas, the pro-life movement may have to accept the best possible outcome, and this is where you’ll see some difficulties.

There’s gonna be some debate on the right. I alluded to this before because, for example, when you talk about exceptions for life of the mother, which I actually think even though some on the right say, “No, you can’t even…” I think that there’s a clear moral case for that. I think there’s a political case to include the Mississippi heartbeat law, for example. There’s a political case to say, “Well, we have to have some exceptions that will be in state law.”

Because if you eliminate the exceptions, if you eliminate any cases in which there can be a legal abortion in the state, you might end up with what they’re gonna have now in Kansas or what they will continue to have in Kansas, which is, “Well, abortion basically until the sixth, seventh, eighth month,” whatever they decide the viability line is. You see what I mean? They’ll want the perfect to be the enemy of the good. That’s gonna be very tough.

When you’re talking about the life issue here, you want to protect as many lives in the womb as you can in as many states, in as many places as you can, right? You save all the lives you can. Now, what does that mean as it plays out in different elections, referendums, state legislatures? You may not be in the wisest position to push for life at conception, no abortion under any circumstance — life begins at conception, no abortion under any circumstances whatsoever.

You’re probably gonna lose in a lot of states if that is what the legislative — as a matter of law, that is what the push is, you probably gonna lose. And losing means the left, which is still pushing… The New York Times just had an editorial published on why do we treat miscarriage and abortion differently. That was in the New York Times. This is like asking, “Why do we treat your grandfather’s heart attack differently from you pushing your grandfather down a flight of stairs to his death?”

These are clearly morally different circumstances. But they’re asking the question out loud. “They’re pushing this. See? It’s no big deal. What’s the problem?” They have no moral foundation for their decisions. The pro-abortion left has completely lost its mind. All nine months of a pregnancy — and that is not an exaggeration. State of Colorado just passed an all nine-month of a pregnancy, state-level abortion law signed by Jared Polis.

So other states are doing this too. It’s effectively the same situation New York, California. They want all nine months of a pregnancy, and they’re going to be dishonest. My friends, you are fighting against delusion and evil here. You’re gonna have people that are saying, “Well, what about this? Let’s look at ectopic pregnancy numbers.” Let’s look at what 98% of abortions, 99% of abortions actually are: Elective procedures for people who don’t want to have a kid right now.

But they’re not defending that. They’re not saying, “Yeah, you know, you it’s been two months, three months into a pregnancy and a woman is just deciding doesn’t want to have a kid right now,” so she’s a going to actually terminate the pregnancy. She’s going to end the life in the womb. They’re not even making that case. If we don’t force them to make that case, if we allow them to say, “Oh, look at the extremes,” we may be right morally — and we are — but we will lose politically.

And movement has to understand this is now a political — and I think they do, and I know some of the prominent voices in the pro-life movement, and they’re doing — look. They’ve just had a miraculous change of situation because of the Dobbs decision. And thanks to the brave conservatives on the Supreme Court for doing the moral and legally correct thing. And so, yes, a big victory. But the battle is not over.

And Kansas shows us that under certain circumstances, even in a red state, they will push everything they have behind this. They will lie about this to people. They will use obscure language. They will use hyperbole. They will do whatever they have to do because this is effectively a… It is a rite, r-i-t-e, of the left. It is central to the identity of the Democrat Party, and they’re gonna fight this out everywhere they possibly can.

We have to fight smart, save as many lives as you can in as many places as you can. Look what Mississippi did. Did Mississippi go to the Supreme Court with an abortion ban at all stages? No. Mississippi went with a gestational heartbeat bill. And now maybe they can push beyond that and make it just about life of the mother, just about cases of rape and incest.

Maybe they’ll go even further. But, in the meantime, think of the lives that are saved, and think of the progress toward the most righteous outcome. But I know that’s tough for people. I know that’s difficult to accept, that you’re not pushing for what is the clearly optimal moral situation. But look at Kansas. We want to win. We want to save lives.