Voters In Deep Red Kentucky Stand In Defiance Of Their Leaders On Abortion Rights

“I’ve always considered myself pro-life, but what if my daughter was raped?”

“I’ve always considered myself pro-life,” said Linda. “But this whole, ‘no exceptions’ part [for rape or incest] just didn’t sit right with me. I thought about, what if my daughter was raped? I think there should be limits on it, but I couldn’t vote yes.”

Linda lives in Warren County, Kentucky and is a lifelong Republican yet she voted no on Amendment 2, a ballot measure that would have denied the use of the state Constitution to protect any right to abortion.

Kentucky Republicans may have strengthened their supermajority in both chambers of the legislature, but voters’ rejection of Amendment 2 demonstrates a stark disconnect between the priorities of the right-wing state government and the people.

This paradigm shift illustrates an overarching national trend, with polling showing most Americans supporting abortion rights, despite the conservative U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

The recent victory over an anti-abortion ballot measure in Kansas, the first since the Roe reversal, likewise demonstrates the rising strength of citizens’ collective power through direct democracy, pushing back against extreme legislatures’ anti-abortion agendas.

While Kentucky Republicans maintain their legislature gains are a “clear endorsement” of their efforts to “protect Kentucky values,” when given the opportunity however, Kentuckians proved to be in staunch contrast to a GOP leadership claiming Kentucky as the most pro-life state in the nation.

It’s evident that even conservatives in a historically deep red state couldn’t stomach such a sweeping and permanent change that left no room for safe abortion access, even in the case of egregious sex crimes.

Even still, abortion has been outlawed in Kentucky since the June Dobbs decision — except for medical emergencies — because of the state’s two trigger laws. And while rejecting the amendment doesn’t restore access to legal abortion, it does strengthen the case of the upcoming legal fight at the State Supreme Court (led by the ACLU of Kentucky) to block the trigger laws from being enforced.

It’s a “huge revelation to people who didn’t realize that Kentucky still wants access to abortion,” says Erin Smith, Executive Director of Kentucky Health Justice Network, part of the coalition that campaigned against the amendment under the umbrella of Protect Kentucky Access.

Smith says polling, focus groups, and outreach messaging centered on empathy towards victims helped to sway voters concerned by the amendment’s lack of exceptions for rape or incest.

“[Voters] were realizing that no one should have to live with that trauma,” Smith told me.

“The language worked against the opposition because you really can’t claim to be pro-life if there are no exceptions even in rape and incest.

People understood that you’re disregarding suffering and trauma. If you or a loved one experiences that type of trauma there is no help for you. It turned opinions.”

Smith says that while they’ve seen a decreased use of their hotline due to fear and political uncertainty, the need for practical support has increased drastically. “We are still sending people out of state because we have to. Every caller is going out of state. Not one abortion is happening in Kentucky that we know of. That is where we are currently at.”

Carol Savkovich, Vice Chair of Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, believes Kentuckians cannot count on abortion coming back any time soon. As another organization that fought against Amendment 2, KRCRC’s focus has always been outreach and education. “Those two are going to be ever more important now,” says Savkovich.

The organization, much like Kentucky Health Justice Network, is focused on switching gears in how they help people. “There’s no telling what the legislature will throw at us, so we are doing what we can while we can.”

And what they can do is launch a billboard campaign to inform people about medication abortion through promoting a link under the billboard’s clever headline, “Want to be Un-Pregnant?”

“With Illinois and Virginia as the closest states [with abortion access] now, medication abortion is a whole lot easier than trying to get to another state,” says Savkovich. “And for an abortion past the second trimester, people have to go further than that. So we can help people get abortions in the first trimester with the pill.”

Kentucky law states only a licensed physician may dispense medication abortion pills and that the pills cannot be mailed. It’s “not a legal option in Kentucky, but is an option nonetheless. You can use the internet and have pills arrive in your mailbox. Of course, people who do that take a certain legal risk,” Savkovich says.

“It’s very frustrating. The legislature is not reflecting the will of the people.”

According to Plan C, an organization that “provides up-to-date information on how people in the U.S. are accessing at-home abortion pill options online,” restricting abortion access is considered by leading justice organizations to be a human rights violation. Yet, between 2000 and 2020, there have been at least 61 cases across the U.S. where people have been prosecuted for self-managing their abortions.

Earlier this week, the Kentucky state Supreme Court heard the first oral arguments on whether to reinstate a temporary injunction on the state’s trigger laws, which would once again restore abortion access to Kentuckians.

In the weeks leading up to election day, Attorney General Daniel Cameron penned an op-ed in which he claimed that “for 49 years, [Kentucky’s] long history of protecting unborn life had been eclipsed by federal judicial activism.” For Cameron, Roe usurped Kentucky’s 1910 statute prohibiting abortion.

Cameron said the issue of abortion “should be decided in the statehouse rather than courthouses, with voices expressed through elected representatives rather than through retained attorneys.”

He wanted the question of abortion out of the courts and given back to the people: Amendment 2 did just that, but the people didn’t give him the answer he was looking for.

In the defeat of Amendment 2, it was not just elected representatives but the electorate themselves whose voices were heard, making clear where the majority of Kentuckians actually stand.

Smith is hopeful this ballot measure will strengthen pro-abortion momentum, reinforcing broad support for abortion rights across the state. “It was a big win to give the attorneys of the ACLU more ground to stand on for the fight [to reinstate the injunction].”

Deputy Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, Lisabeth Hughes, echoes this optimism. While state solicitor general Matthew Kuhn claims the Kentucky Constitution is “silent” on abortion, Hughes says she “has some questions about the necessity of grounding our decision in 2022 on what occurred in 1890,” characterizing the rejection of Amendment 2 as the “purest form of democracy.”

Ultimately, Kentuckians have signaled to leaders that citizens have the power to fight the draconian laws at the center of the State Supreme Court case.

“We don’t know how long the court case will take and how long they will deliberate,”

Smith says. “But in the end, we will be here.”

To support the ACLU of Kentucky’s challenge to the abortion bans blocking access to care, you can donate to the Reproductive Freedom Project or join the ACLU Action Alert List.