https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senator-collins-joins-bipartisan-effort-to-codify-roe-v-wade Collins and Murkowski join Sinema and Kain in codifying Roe and Griswold.
Tort reform is Republican for "let's make it easier for businesses to hurt people and not face any consequences for it."
With about a quarter of the votes counted in Kansas, an amendment that would allow the Legislature to do away with any protections for abortion rights is going down by a two to one margin. That doesn't reflect any votes in the Kansas City area.
It's possible the margin for "No" in red Kansas will be a resounding double digits, a sign of just how unpopular overturning Roe v. Wade is nationally. https://twitter.com/redistrict/status/1554646073842569217?s=21&t=ISD-dVg40MUCKqBppBSSQA Holy fuck!
Collins does the right thing reasonably often ... when it's obvious that her vote will not, in any way, shape or form, be the deciding one. Her entire raison d'être is generating headlines for being "moderate," yet never actually exerting any influence whatsoever.
While I think it's shitty and disagree with it, I somewhat understand the reasoning why unaffiliated voters can't vote for candidates in primaries. But that's beyond fucked up that unaffiliated voters can't even vote for ballot measures in a primary. There is no logic behind that, other than voter suppression. (Unless I'm misunderstanding)
140,000 more votes (about 20% of all cast) than the combined Republican/Democrat votes in the governor's primaries. (Kansas has closed primaries so this 140k were unaffiliated voters who were ONLY there to vote no)
Optimistically, this tweet is saying that people showed up just to vote on the measure. Pessimistically, the tweet author has it wrong.
From the NYT: It's amazing that Republicans are still using the "oh no, just allowing us to decide whether to ban abortion doesn't mean that we will ban it! Oh golly gee, why would you ever think such a thing?" line and expecting people to be stupid enough to buy it.
If legislators want to make medical decisions, then legislators must have medical degrees from accredited universities and require ongoing medical training as long as they continue to be re-elected.
With 99% of the vote in No won by 18 points in a state Trump by 15 points just two years ago. Dobbs really could be the dog catching the car for Republicans.
I remember Reagan trying to make a third presidential term legal, and he used the "oh gee whiz, it doesn't mean I'D use it!" line. That tactic goes back a ways.
Psst. No won. They stopped them from removing the right to abortion from their Constitution. But otherwise spot on.
How many GOP No votes were there in Kansas? One way to look at it: 276,383 votes in Dem primary 463,592 in GOP primary 168,772 unaffiliated voting in just the referendum Dem + Unaffiliated votes = 445,155 Total No vote: 534,136 So that suggests at least 20% of R's were No's. https://twitter.com/stevekornacki/status/1554796860937756672?s=21&t=5BNHJqkNMnnA6quHP7Whjg
On a related tangent, it sure is interesting that we only got limits on presidential terms after the most arguably socialist President was elected four times.
Georgia is letting people claim fetuses as dependents now. And Missouri apparently won't let couples finalize their divorces when there's a pregnancy involved because they can't work out child custody arrangements for a fetus. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/03/georgia-fetus-tax-dependent-abortion/
The fact that a backward-ass state like Kansas overwhelming voted to uphold abortion rights should send a shiver down the spine of every filthy Republican rat bastard in your country.
This may backfire so badly on religious conservatives that their next step will have to be taking away a woman's right to vote In fact they're probably already thinking about it
I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if Republicans worked on reverting the US to its pro-democracy setup of only allowing white, male landowners to vote. Conservatism is, in a nutshell, about protecting the elite, and that anyone who is not a member is unworthy or bad.
As a resident of said state, I have to say I'm shocked and pleasantly surprised at the outcome. This amendment was handily downvoted, and from counties I wouldn't really expect to swing to the NO side. It seems that even here if you irritate people enough they will go out and vote. No doubt they will try again in the future, but from what I've seen for a primary the voter turnout was incredible and a whole lot of new voters registered just for that one issue.