Kansas women changed the world in the summer of 2022 • Kansas Reflector

It was a typical Friday in the summer of 2022. I was driving my daughters to camp, sipping my coffee and listening as they belted lines to yet another Taylor Swift song in the backseat. It was about 9 a.m., which also meant it was about time for the Supreme Court of the United States to release its weekly opinions.

I had been anxious for weeks. The unprecedented leak in May of a draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade had given us a glimpse of what was to come. But I, like many Americans, continued to hold onto the false hope that the actual decision would be different. Waiting for these decisions to be announced became an odd ritual in my week. For over a month, we had heard nothing.

But that Friday — June 24, 2022 — would be different.

As we rolled into the camp parking lot, my phone began to buzz. I glanced at the messages and my heart dropped. For the girls singing in the backseat, America had changed in an instant. I felt sad and angry and afraid, but I took a deep breath, parked the car, and let them run happily to their day at camp. What they didn’t know — because I didn’t have the heart to tell them yet — was that they would now grow up in an America where they had fewer rights than I did at their age.

The next 40 days would be the toughest but most inspiring days of my professional career. As my daughters joined their fellow campers — strong, boisterous, and carefree — I turned my attention to my job. I was the communications director for the campaign to defend abortion rights in Kansas. My brilliant colleagues were already working. Reporters were already calling. And Americans were already starting to see the post-Roe reality that would put our health, safety, and lives at risk.

Kansas would be the first state in the nation to vote on reproductive rights following the fall of Roe v. Wade. Between the Dobbs decision and the vote on Aug. 2, so many Kansans of all ages, genders and backgrounds came together — making calls, knocking on doors, sending postcards, putting up yard signs, and talking to our friends and neighbors about the importance of voting NO.

On primary election night, as results rolled in, freedom and common sense prevailed! I can tell you from hundreds of conversations with reporters from across the country and around the world, very few people outside of Kansas thought we could win. That night, we stunned the nation and all the national pundits who thought they understood “red states,” abortion politics and reproductive rights.

It was a historic moment for our state and our nation. Kansas changed the national narrative about abortion rights and gave people hope again at a desperate and terrifying time. We changed what people thought was possible. Our state became central to the discussion of reproductive rights in the 2022 midterms and remains so to this day.

There were a lot of hot takes in the days after our historic win. But I want to tell you the real reason we won in a landslide in August 2022: Kansas women.

Grandmothers, mothers, daughters, aunts, nieces, sisters, friends, and neighbors worked together to protect each other. We won because women — many of whom had never been politically active or engaged — did the work together to make their voices heard and to make their votes count.

In that election, women had an enormous, indispensable impact. Not only did women make up the vast majority (though not all) of our volunteers and staff, but we also came out in force to vote. There was a massive surge in voter registration following the Dobbs decisions, especially among young women.

Among all primary voters that year, the number of women who cast a ballot was historic. Overall, Kansas women made up almost 56% of voters in the August 2022 election. And the younger the voters, the more women dominated. Voters between 18 and 24 years old were 61% female. That gives me hope for the future of our state and our nation.

Since that pivotal vote, I’ve worked on five ballot campaigns in support of reproductive rights across the United States. Each state is unique, but in each state, female advocates, staff, allies, and voters play a key role in our historic wins. This year will be no different.

Kansas women once again have the opportunity to make history and make our state a better place for all people. We can rally around our shared values of freedom, fairness, equality and hard work. We can make public education, affordable child care and health care, and self-determination priorities once again. It’s time we embrace our power to change the world.

Ashley All has spent two decades working in Kansas politics and public policy. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.