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More on the Issue of Abortion in KY Elections of 2022. [1]

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Date: 2022-11-10

I thought I would give everyone some more background on how the issue of abortion played in the 2022 Midterm Elections. As you have no doubt heard, up for a vote was a constitutional amendment to the Kentucky Constitution to say there was no right to have an abortion in the state of Kentucky (Amendment 2). Also not widely reported, there was an openly partisan state supreme court race on the issue of abortion. One of the three candidates for the seven member Kentucky Supreme Court, State Representative Joe Fischer, made abortion a center piece of his campaign. And all of the state house seats were up this year in KY. Overall, prochoice proponents had a good night.

But it wasn’t all wine and roses for a woman’s right to bodily autonomy in Kentucky.

Let’s go with the good news first. Amendment 2 was defeated. It was no where the blowout that we say in Kansas. In Kentucky, 52.4% voted “NO” on Amendment 2. But to be honest, I don’t recall seeing a lot of advertisement for or against Amendment 2. It came in last couple of weeks, and it was not a deluge of ads to vote “No.”

But I had a feeling that Kentuckians would reject Amendment 2. Yes, there are a lot of christian nationalists in Kentucky. But we elected Democrat Steven Beshear as governor back in 2019, and he ran specifically on the issue of keeping abortion legal in Kentucky.

And frankly, I haven’t heard so much as a peep out of the anti-abortion crowd since Tuesday. I think Republicans who pushed for that trigger law that made abortion illegal in Kentucky are staying mum for now. Although, I cannot imagine them giving up on forced births in KY.

Another good sign for abortion rights came with the DEFEAT of Joe Fischer for the Kentucky State Supreme Court. Now, in Kentucky, we are supposed to have — cough — non-partisan elections for any judicial race. And we have — wait for it — multiple judges to choose from at all levels (Family Court, District Court, Court of Appeals, and Supreme Court). I ended up voting for 43 different people for Kentucky judgeships.

Yes, 43 judges.

Now, what made State Representive Joe Fischer stand out was this:

In a fiercely contested race for the state Supreme Court, challenger Joe Fischer early Wednesday fell to incumbent Justice Michelle Keller in the contest for the 6th Supreme Court judicial district. With about 98% of votes reported, Fischer, a staunchly anti-abortion state representative from Fort Thomas, had 45% of the votes compared to Keller, with 55% in a race that drew national attention for Fischer's openly partisan campaign and hundreds of thousands of dollars poured in by outside groups on behalf of both candidates. Fischer promoted himself as "the conservative Republican" in a judicial race that is supposed to be nonpartisan, according to the Kentucky constitution. The race was one of three contested judicial seats for the seven-member court… Fischer, 67, the author of the law that for now has blocked abortions in Kentucky, ran an openly partisan campaign − identifying himself as a conservative Republican and touting endorsements from anti-abortion groups − that drew criticism from an outside watchdog agency.

Kentuckians like to think that we have non-partisan elections for judges, but here was Fischer openly saying, “Fuck that shit!” And when the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission wanted to open up an investigation of Fischer and his out of state money ($375,000 dollars worth), he sued the Commission. And a really nice federal judge from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary injunction to stop the Commission.

So Fischer getting beat in a landslide was a positive development.

Now, for some of the bad news. Although there might be men and women who are prochoice in Kentucky, this same attitude took a second seat to racism. Kentuckians reelected Senator Rand Paul who will vote with his fellow Republicans to make a national ban on abortion. And it was a landslide for Paul against a good, decent, prochoice candidate Charles Booker. What killed Booker’s chances was the color of his skin.

Also, the state house now has added five more Republicans to make their supermajority even larger in the Kentucky House. This is why the abortion issue will not go away. Voters in KY may be prochoice, but they haven’t gotten the connection that voting Republican is as sure fire way to empower anti-choice lunatics in this state.

It didn’t help matters that Democrats didn’t even bother to field ANY candidates in several state house and senate races. Zombies have more life in them than the Kentucky Democratic Party. And the lack of any party structure has been an ongoing crisis for over a decade or more now.

Anyway, the Kentucky Supreme Court is still supposed to take up a challenge to the trigger law. I have no idea when that may be to be honest. It was sent to them before the election, but no hearing was announced as far as I know.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/10/2135071/-More-on-the-Issue-of-Abortion-in-KY-Elections-of-2022

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