Desperate texting scam tries to confuse voters on eve of abortion election | Opinion

On Monday, Kansas voters began receiving anonymous, fraudulent, boiler-room text messages reading: “Women in KS are losing their choice on reproductive rights. Voting YES on the Amendment will give women a choice.”

Fact check: A “yes” vote is a vote to limit women’s choices on reproductive rights. The texts are a deliberate, and desperate, scam to deceive pro-choice voters into voting “yes.”

Whoever’s doing it is covering their tracks well. They’re spoofing the messages through random toll-free numbers that when called, generate only busy signals.

It’s the latest and dirtiest example of dirty tricks being deployed in these final days of the campaign ahead of Tuesday’s vote on the Value Them Both Amendment.

Here’s the reality:

If you want the Kansas Legislature to have the sole authority over abortions, up to and including banning them, vote “Yes” on the amendment. If you don’t, vote “No.”

It’s that simple.

Throughout the campaign, The Wichita Eagle has not taken an official editorial position on the amendment, considering it more a matter of conscience than polity. We figured you didn’t need our help to make your own decisions on fundamental questions of religion and morality.

What we have tried to do is inform you what it is you’re voting on. We’ve regularly run guest columns and letters arguing for and against the amendment, and staff-written opinion pieces in which we have tried to cut through the clutter.

Ordinarily, we wouldn’t be editorializing at all this close to the election.

But campaigns on emotionally charged matters such as abortion have a way of spinning out of control. And in recent days, this one has, big time.

The latest wrinkle is that campaigns have taken to stealing each others’ slogans and imagery to confuse voters and try to advance their cause.

In addition to the aforementioned texts, “Liberty and Justice,” a staple slogan of the “Vote No” campaign, is at this moment flashing from an electronic billboard along the Kellogg freeway, urging a “yes” vote.

On social media, an altered version of the Value Them Both logo urges “Vote No, Defend Autonomy.”

It only adds to the confusion surrounding an already confusingly written amendment.

That’s not helpful.

Nor is the fact that as the vote approaches, the scare tactics have grown increasingly shrill.

The hard-core “Yes” people would have you believe that without Value Them Both, abortions will be allowed up to the moment of birth if the woman carrying the pregnancy changes her mind, and that tax money will pay for it.

That’s simply not true.

Under state and federal law, taxpayer funding of abortions is prohibited except in cases of medical emergency.

In 2019, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that women have a right to bodily autonomy. But the court never ruled that right to be absolute.

Abortion remains one of the most, perhaps the most, regulated medical procedure in this state.

We know of no other procedure where a patient is required by law to be shown state-produced materials urging them not to do it, and a mandated 24-hour waiting period to think it over.

Late-term abortions, after 22 weeks, are only legal if done to protect the life or health of the mother; there’s no “I changed my mind.” Minors are still required to get permission from parents or a judge.

Whether Value Them Both wins or loses, that’s not likely to change. The court has had three years to overturn those laws and hasn’t.

The “No” side is also guilty of some hyperbole here.

For example, no state in America bans abortion when it’s done to save the life of the mother. The Kansas Legislature, as anti-abortion as it is, is highly unlikely to be the first.

Some of the late campaigning has also taken on a distinctly anti-Catholic tone.

The Roman Catholic Church has bankrolled the bulk of the Value Them Both campaign, but there are many Catholics who are (quietly) pro-choice and many non-Catholics who are pro-life. It’s not a denominational holy war and trying to turn it into one feeds nothing but prejudice.

There are those who believe that abortion is murder and can’t be allowed, ever, for any reason. And there are those who believe that no outside authority should have any say at all in what a woman does with her pregnancy.

But polls show the vast majority of Kansans are more conflicted, supporting some regulation of abortion, but not a total ban.

In a perfect world, we’d be presented with a ballot measure spelling out under what circumstances abortion would or wouldn’t be allowed.

But we don’t have that.

What we have is a leap of faith.

We are being asked to vote without a clear indication of what the Legislature would do if given full authority to set state policy on abortion without court oversight.

The people who wrote the amendment, the Republican majority in the state Legislature, is asking Kansas to write them a blank check.

In the end, the question comes down to this: “Do you trust the Kansas Legislature to adequately represent your personal beliefs when it comes to abortion?”

If you do, vote “Yes.” If you don’t, vote “No.”

It really is that simple.

This story was originally published August 1, 2022 at 3:26 PM.