In Kansas, a pro-life campaign is lying
A dirty trick against pro-choice voters.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that the Kansas pro-life campaign wasn’t being entirely forthright about its intentions in this week’s vote on the “Value Them Both” amendment. I’d like to revise that, now.
The campaign is now actively misleading voters.1
Above, you see the text I just received less than an hour ago. It is … not a true message. It makes it sound like pro-choice voters should vote “yes” on the amendment if they want to preserve abortion rights.
But that’s not the case at all. At all.
A “yes” vote gives the Kansas Legislature the power to ban abortion. A “no” vote preserves the right to abortion under the state’s current case law.
The text I received — and, I gather, a number of my left-leaning friends have also received — makes it sound entirely the opposite.
Let’s repeat this, loudly, for everybody going to the polls tomorrow:
If you vote yes, you want abortion banned.2 Not regulated. Banned.
If you vote no, you don’t. Everything else is commentary.
Listen: I’m pro-choice, but I’m also probably as sympathetic to the pro-life folks as somebody can be while thinking they are, ultimately, wrong. I think I understand why pro-lifers think the way they do, and I worry sometimes that maybe my moral sense isn’t quite right. I think I’ve taken the right position, but it’s possible that future generations will judge me a monster.
But.
I’m only willing to be generous toward people who disagree with me inasmuch as I believe that we’re both seeking out the Truth, as best we understand it. Whoever texted the message above doesn’t share that belief, apparently. They’re trying to confuse pro-choice people into voting against their own desires and intentions. It’s a dirty trick. And it’s despicable.
Voting ends tomorrow, August 2.
UPDATE: Aug. 2
But the messages were crafted by a political action committee led by Tim Huelskamp, a former hard-line Republican congressman from Kansas, and enabled by a fast-growing, Republican-aligned technology firm, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the advertising blitz. The people and groups behind the campaign have not been previously reported.
The Alliance Forge client that sent the messages was Do Right PAC, chaired by Huelskamp, who served in Congress between 2011 and 2017. The PAC has raised more than $532,000 and spent more than $203,000 in support of the amendment, according to a filing last month. Huelskamp did not respond to calls and a text message seeking comment.
Today’s recommendation
Or some plausibly deniable part of it, most likely.
The amendment doesn’t itself ban abortion. But it does give that power to the Kansas Legislature, which will almost certainly use it. Everybody who is paying attention understands this.