Will abortion be on more state ballots after Kansas vote?

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Abortion opponents were shocked and abortion rights advocates energized by a decisive statewide vote in heavily Republican Kansas this week in favor of protecting abortion access, yet it's not likely to translate into new abortion votes across the U.S. in the November election.

Four other states — California, Kentucky, Michigan and Vermont — could have votes in November on abortion access, and a fifth, Montana, is voting on a measure that would require abortion providers to give lifesaving treatment to a fetus that is born alive after a botched abortion. Opponents argue federal law already offers those protections. No other abortion initiatives are likely to make a state's November ballot.

The Kansas vote was the first test of public feeling about abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June, and it upended political assumptions.

Voters rejected a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution declaring that it grants no right to abortion. That would have opened the door for the GOP-controlled Legislature to further restrict or ban abortion and nullify a 2019 decision by the Kansas Supreme Court that access is a “fundamental” right under the state's Bill of Rights.

HOW WAS THE OUTCOME OF THE KANSAS VOTE A SURPRISE?

Abortion rights supporters prevailed by nearly 18 percentage points in the Republican state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement. They took the outcome as confirmation that preserving access to abortion is popular.

Officials with several national abortion rights groups argued that the vote shows it’s a mistake for Democrats in red states like Kansas to avoid talking about abortion and that support for abortion rights can drive voters to the polls. In Kentucky, donations to the abortion rights...