Don't celebrate Kansas too soon

[HelpImSurrounded]

Granted, I was the last person to suspect that Kansas had constitutionally protected abortion access. Give my trips down Kansas' tollway I've come to think of Kansas as a "Don't come here" state and never dreamed that women would have an iota of rights.

So I was pleasantly surprised to learn that, not only are abortion rights protected, but the electorate voted to keep them protected last night.

But this is just step 0. I looked in to the 2019 decision that recognized this right and I fear it is as tenuous as Roe always was. But this time we need to say it louder and pursue real codification of that right.

In Kansas that right is based in this line - "All men are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The decision continues: "We are now asked: 'Is this declaration of rights more than an idealized aspiration? And, if so, do the substantive rights include a woman's right to make decisions about her body, including the decision whether to continue her pregnancy? We answer these questions, 'Yes.' "

While I think this is a stronger decision than Roe it was a 7-7 decision of the Appeals court which left the lower court decision in place and it is an inherently delicate political position teetering between past centuries of misogyny and, hopefully, a future of liberation.

But this is now. It's not the future yet. Complacency will be our enemy. Now is not the time to breathe a sigh of relief and hope it stands. We have to assume it won't and reach, uncompromisingly, for women's bodily autonomy and nothing less.