Speaker 1: There were some elections last night, mostly primaries. And we'll talk about those
later. But an incredible if you haven't been paying attention result from last night is that
Kansas voters deep dark red. Kansas voters have voted to keep abortion legal in the state of
Kansas. And the reason I say if you haven't been paying attention, it would be shocking,
is that we know from public opinion polls that now there is more support for abortion being legal in
most cases in the United States than at any point since the start of the Roe v Wade era. And so when
the Supreme Court a few weeks ago overturned Roe v Wade, nine people voted and six of them decided
to overturn Roe v Wade. It is not representative or reflective of the will of the people of the
United States. We now are seeing the proof of that in this vote from Kansas. The Associated Press
reporting Kansas voters resoundingly protect their access to abortion reading. Kansas voters sent
a resounding message about their desire to protect abortion rights, rejecting a ballot
measure in a conservative state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement that would have
allowed the Republican controlled legislature to tighten restrictions or ban abortion outright.
This was the first test of voter sentiment after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June,
which overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, providing an unexpected result with
potential implications for the coming midterm elections. The implications here are numerous.
First and foremost, owe the vote by 20 points. The vote was to keep to reject the amendment, which
would have allowed anything up to making abortion illegal. So a 20 point victory for the pro-choice
side in the deep, dark red state of Kansas. Now, we've known for some time that Americans generally
want abortion to be legal. Now, I know there are many people who desperately want abortion to be
illegal, but consider the circumstances in the United States. Over time, the country has become
more and more in favor of legal abortion in most cases, and the country has become less and
less religious. And we know that one of the main groups that is against abortion is those who are
religious of a very particular kind. We're talking about evangelical Christians. We're talking about
conservative Catholics, etc.. That group has shrunk over time. There has been shrinkage,
and we have seen support for abortion increase. Now there are non-religious people who are also
against abortion. No, no problem. But the main opposition to abortion in the United States is
religiously based. So these are not surprising numbers. The connection to the November midterms
that's being made here is a very, very important one. Tomorrow, assuming everything goes right,
things get a little crazy sometimes for Rachel, a bit of copper, and sometimes interviews get
rescheduled. But I'm scheduled to speak with political scientist Rachel Bitter Coffee tomorrow.
The signs are increasingly pointing to this year. Abortion rights and gun safety being good issues
for Democrats to run on. Typically, running on abortion rights and gun safety regulations
is not good for Democrats. If anything, it doesn't do anything to activate Democrats,
but it does a lot to activate Republicans to come out and vote against whoever is supporting
abortion rights and supporting gun safety regulations. The polling we've seen so far
already suggests that this year those might be winning issues for Democrats. The results
in Kansas further suggest that that indeed might be the case. Now you should be prepared,
and it's already happening for anti-choice advocates, right wingers, kooky reactionaries,
all the normal people that you would expect to come out and say that the reason this vote went
the way it did in Kansas is for something other than people just generally want abortion to be
available in most cases. Doesn't mean you have to get one or anybody in particular has to get one,
but it's available as an option for you and your doctors to determine is the right one for you.
And they are already going out of their way to say this was about other things and I'm not
going to plague you with these examples. But here is one from Fox News where they made it out to be.
Basically, the pro-choice people bought these results by spending a whole bunch of money.
It's not reflective of the actual perspective on abortion in the United States. Here's one example.
Speaker 2: Kansas referendum is very interesting. I do think that pro-lifers should understand
that so much money was spent by hardcore abortion supporters. To make sure that that
amendment failed. It also was a pretty there's a lot that was packaged there. And I think that
usually pro-life initiatives do much better when they're incremental. And so it's a reminder also
that as Roe v Wade was overturned and abortion law and policy is returned to the states where people
get to weigh in. There's a lot of work to be done for people who want to protect women and children
from the scourge of abortion or people who want to make sure that it is enshrined in law. So
so there's a lot more to be done there and we'll see a lot more in the years to come.
Speaker 1: So that's Mollie Hemingway from The Federalist, and she's actually completely wrong.
It is not about any of those things. People are less religious than ever. People are more in favor
of abortion being legal in most cases than ever. The primary opposition to abortion is on religious
grounds, and they are just out of step with the will of the American people. That's what's
going on. And listen, it's Kansas. If Kansas is deep down actually against abortion being legal,
you're not going to be able to spend your way to a victory the way that she's suggesting the
pro-choice movement would be able to do. There are people who want low taxes, low regulation, to the
extent that they even I mean, listen, I'm being charitable to the extent they even know what these
things mean. You can be for low taxes and low regulation and, you know, not teaching transgender
in schools, even whatever that means, but still have come around on the fact that abortion should
probably be legal in most cases, and that's what's going on. So tomorrow we'll talk to Rachel Bitter
Cofer and get her thoughts about what this potentially means for the November election