TOPEKA — The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday striking down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide resonates deeply in Kansas where a proposed constitutional amendment on the August ballot could set the stage for a wave of new abortion restrictions in the state.
Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat campaigning for reelection in 2022, said the 6-3 decision by the nation’s highest court would have no immediate impact in Kansas given a Kansas Supreme Court opinion two years ago that said a constitutional right to abortion existed in the state’s Bill of Rights.
“But anybody who’s been alive in Kansas in the last six months knows that we have an amendment on the primary ballot that would essentially overturn the (state) Supreme Court ruling and say that women’s reproductive rights are not protected under the constitution,” Kelly said.