Kansas battles over voting access and abortion reflect the same challenges

Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Chloe Chaffin is a junior at Washburn University, where they are studying secondary English education and political science, with minors in leadership studies and poverty studies.

Living in Kansas, I have seen how our Legislature has worked tirelessly to make it harder to vote. From former Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s unconstitutional proof of citizenship requirement to current fights that would limit mail-in voting, advanced ballot drop boxes and nonpartisan voter registration efforts, Kansans have spent much of the last decade trying to keep up with new voting restrictions.

Strategies of voter disenfranchisement and election subversion have existed for decades to keep power where it lies, but the new urgency with which it has been promoted in the last two years is unmistakably related to the Aug. 2 vote on reproductive rights in Kansas.

The connection is not imagined. Abortion-rights opponents Kansans for Life sent action alerts to supporters immediately after the constitutional amendment was approved to be on the ballot, encouraging its network to support voter suppression bills to give them an advantage in August.

Young people are the ones who have the hardest time voting, because the information ecosystem is purposefully disorienting for first time voters, because they may split their time (especially in an August primary) between a college and parental address, and because they have less financial freedom, which affects their ability to take time off work or access reliable transportation. But they are also the ones most likely to experience unplanned pregnancy.

It is important that we call out the Legislature’s attacks on our elections as a way of promoting an agenda that so much of the public is not just unaware of, but disagrees with.

They know that Kansans overwhelmingly favor home rule, smaller government, and personal autonomy, yet laws enabled by the amendment could take choice and flexibility away from the most affected individuals and their expert medical providers.

Those who could be most affected by the constitutional amendment passing in August are young people with less political voice. They could be young people of color and queer people who face greater stigmas in reproductive care. And they could be the working-class folks who don’t have the time or means to seek services out of state.

Most lawmakers in Topeka do not face these same barriers. We know who they keep in mind while in office: themselves.

Holding public office is supposed to be about public service, about fighting on behalf of the most marginalized for a more equitable world. Kansas lawmakers have lost their way in this respect. The Legislature tried to secure a vote on such an amendment in 2020, then held up a bipartisan Medicaid expansion plan that would have given Kansans immediate access to affordable insurance. It was legislators’ explicitly stated revenge for not getting their way.

What many may not realize is that the few health centers in Kansas that offer abortion services are clustered in Wichita and Kansas City. This means the vast majority of Kansans already have an exceedingly difficult and costly journey to obtain an abortion.

Living in Shawnee County, I have seen how 180,000 people are expected to use only one early voting location without any evening or weekend options. The right to an abortion and the right to vote are rights, not privileges, yet genuine access is getting harder every day.

In the most recent session, House Bill 2746 was introduced. That bill would have made abortion a felony crime, without exceptions for rape or incest. It is unconstitutional to pass such a bill now, but it would be constitutional to pass one if the amendment becomes law.

Voter suppression and the primary polling date are not incidental. This election was scheduled deliberately to minimize participation. To give the illusion of public input while working behind the scenes to reduce that input is an enormous letdown to the people of Kansas.

The Aug. 2 election is not about one politician or another. It is about which rights politicians can choose to restrict or ban in sessions to come.

Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.