A proposed amendment with the potential to affect the citizens of Kansas for generations will be on the Aug. 2 ballot. Yes, the Value Them Both amendment is that important. For years those who opposed access to what many consider to be a woman’s health issue have chipped away at abortion rights. This proposed amendment, if successful, would give Kansas lawmakers the power to impose an outright ban on safe, legal abortions even in cases of rape, incest or the health of the mother.

Of course, that is not the way it will work. As my generation learned early on, no law will ever stop abortion. But lawmakers can still do damage — in particular to poor women who won’t have as many options as those with healthy bank accounts.

Back in what now seems like the Dark Ages, a time prior to 1973 and the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, legal abortions — like so many things in this country — were available mainly to those who could afford them. If a girl from the “West End,” code in our small, rural Indiana town for the wrong side of the tracks,” became pregnant, she was kicked out of school. Those with more affluent parents left school on a Friday and returned the next Monday as if nothing had happened, the better part of their weekend being spent in Chicago or some other place where abortion was legal.

Students who become pregnant are no longer shunned as they were in the 1960s — thank goodness — but there are other concerns.

Studies from Tulane and Washington universities show that women who live in states that restrict abortion are more likely to die in childbirth.

“The post-Roe situation, and the issues we have with maternal mortality, and the issues that we have with access to care in rural areas of the United States ... are all coming together in a way that is going to make [our] battle against maternal mortality 1,000 times worse,” Dr. Anne Banfield, an OB-GYN who practiced in rural West Virginia, told National Public Radio for a story on maternal mortality rates.

Kansas lawmakers responsible for the Value Them Both amendment have done everything possible — from its name to its scheduling to its wording — to tilt the scales in favor of their anti-choice constituents. Don’t let them get away with it.

A “yes” vote would preempt a 2019 ruling from the Kansas state Supreme Court protecting abortion rights and allow the Legislature to pass any and all restrictions on the procedure, including a ban.

A “no” vote would maintain the status quo, including restrictions already in place, according to legal scholars.

Vote “no” Aug. 2.

Linda Mowery-Denning

Salina, formerly of Ellsworth

P.S. Advance voting is now open at the courthouse office of the Ellsworth County clerk. You do not have to claim party affiliation to vote on the proposed constitutional amendment.

Studies from Tulane and Washington universities show that women who live in states that restrict abortion are more likely to die in childbirth.