The Kansas abortion victory shatters a losing streak for reproductive rights in the ballot box that goes back years in red states

• Kansas voters overwhelmingly voted on Tuesday to keep the right to abortion alive.
• The victory broke a streak of losses for abortion rights at the ballot box in red states.

The last time abortion rights emerged victorious at the ballot box in a Republican-leaning state was in North Dakota in 2014, four election cycles ago. That streak was broken on Tuesday night in Kansas when voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have eliminated a right to abortion from the state constitution.

If passed, Amendment 2 would have amended the state constitution to establish no right to an abortion in the state as well as no right for public funding of abortions.

The victory for pro-abortion rights activists is relatively uncommon in recent times in red states, where red state referendums on abortions have typically swung in the opposite direction.

Republican-controlled states have passed four similar initiatives establishing no right to abortion under their states since 2014, the last time abortion rights won at the ballot box in a primarily conservative state.

In 2014, Tennessee voted to amend the state constitution to stipulate that nothing in it "secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion" and granted the legislature power to enforce abortion regulations.

In 2018, voters in both Alabama and West Virginia voted to add text similar to Tennessee's referendum to its constitution. Alabama voters approved their amendment by a wide margin of, 59% to 41%, while West Virginia's passed with more narrow support.

And in 2020, voters in Louisiana overwhelmingly voted to add text to the state constitution that said "nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion."

The margins of victory in Tennessee and West Virginia were minimal, about 5 percentage points or less. Louisiana's was more decisive, with a 24-percentage-points margin of victory.

Tuesday in Kansas broke the streak of losses at the ballot box and shattered expectations with abortion rights prevailing by more than 17 percentage points. Additionally, a whopping 900,000 people voted in the referendum, coming close to the number of ballots cast in the state in the 2018 midterm elections.

As Insider's Grace Panetta wrote, the Kansas referendum serves as a warning for the fate of future anti-abortion ballot measures — Kansas is one of five states that have abortion rights on the ballot this year — and shows that voter turnout and enthusiasm are at an all-time high since the Supreme Court gutted abortion rights in June.