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Taiwan blames politics for cancellation of global Pride event

August 12, 2022 by www.asiaone.com Leave a Comment

TAIPEI – Taiwan on Friday (Aug 12) blamed “political considerations” for the cancellation of WorldPride 2025 Taiwan after it said the organisers had insisted the word “Taiwan” be removed.

Taiwan participates in global organisations like the Olympics as “Chinese Taipei”, to avoid political problems with China which views the democratically-governed island as its own territory and bristles at anything that suggests it is a separate country.

Taiwan’s southern city of Kaohsiung had been due to host WorldPride 2025 Taiwan, after winning the right from global LGBTQ rights group InterPride.

Last year, after an outcry in Taiwan, it dropped a reference to the island as a “region”, wording that suggests it is not a country.

But the Kaohsiung organisers said InterPride had recently “suddenly” asked them to change the name of the event to “Kaohsiung”, removing the word “Taiwan”.

“After careful evaluation, it is believed that if the event continues, it may harm the interests of Taiwan and the Taiwan gay community. Therefore, it is decided to terminate the project before signing the contract,” said the Kaohsiung organisers.

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InterPride did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said the event would have been the first WorldPride event to be held in East Asia.

“Taiwan deeply regrets that InterPride, due to political considerations, has unilaterally rejected the mutually agreed upon consensus and broken a relationship of co-operation and trust, leading to this outcome,” it said.

“Not only does the decision disrespect Taiwan’s rights and diligent efforts, it also harms Asia’s vast LGBTIQ+ community and runs counter to the progressive principles espoused by InterPride.”

Taiwan legalised same-sex marriage in 2019, in a first for Asia, and is proud of its reputation as a bastion of LGBTQ rights and liberalism.

While same sex relations are not illegal in China, same sex marriage is, and the government has been cracking down depictions of LGBTQ people in the media and of the community’s use of social media.

Filed Under: Asia Asia, Taiwan, LGBT, Homosexuality/LGBT, Politics and Government, pride events near me, gay pride events near me, how to cancel global cash card, lgbt pride events, cancel global cash card, upcoming gay pride events, gay pride events, politics cancel culture, pride events 2021, politics to globalization

Boris Johnson resignation: Zahawi and Shapps enter Tory leadership race

July 9, 2022 by www.bbc.co.uk Leave a Comment

By Adam Durbin & Jo Couzens

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    9 July

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Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps have launched their bids to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and PM.

Mr Shapps told the Sunday Times he was ruling out a general election if he was successful in becoming prime minister.

Mr Zahawi has said he will lower taxes, boost defence spending, and continue with the reforms he began while education secretary.

Earlier, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he would not run.

The cabinet ministers join former chancellor Rishi Sunak, Attorney General Suella Braverman, former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat in the race to take over from Mr Johnson.

Allies of Liz Truss have said the foreign secretary would also throw her cap in the ring to replace the prime minister on a ticket of reversing Mr Sunak’s health tax, according to the Mail on Sunday .

  • Who could be the next prime minister?
  • Political landscape being re-shaped before our eyes
  • Rishi Sunak launches bid to be Conservative leader

Launching his bid for leader, Mr Zahawi – who was appointed chancellor last Wednesday after the resignation of Rishi Sunak – said he planned to “steady the ship and to stabilise the economy”.

He said: “My aim is a simple one: to provide the opportunities that were afforded to my generation, to all Britons, whoever you are and wherever you come from.

“Thanks to Brexit, we are now a free nation. Let’s not just talk about the opportunities that follow, let’s take them.”

The former education secretary added that he wants to “focus on letting children be children, protecting them from damaging and inappropriate nonsense being forced on them by radical activists”.

Born in Iraq, Mr Zahawi and his family were forced to flee when Saddam Hussein came to power.

He became MP for Stratford-on-Avon in 2010 having first set up a firm selling Teletubbies merchandise and founding polling company YouGov.

Twenty-four hours after he was promoted to the Treasury, Mr Zahawi joined a group of ministers on Thursday who told Mr Johnson to go.

Meanwhile, Mr Shapps pledged to produce an emergency budget, instruct his chancellor to cut personal tax for the poorest people and give state support to businesses with high levels of energy consumption.

He was one of the senior cabinet ministers who did not resign during a chaotic week in Westminster which led to Mr Johnson’s resignation.

Appearing to criticise colleagues who did, he told the paper he had “not spent the last few turbulent years plotting or briefing against the prime minister” or organising a leadership campaign in the background.

He told the paper : “I tell you this: for all his flaws – and who is not flawed? – I like Boris Johnson. I have never, for a moment, doubted his love of this country.”

Mr Shapps served as a minister under both David Cameron and Boris Johnson and was appointed co-chairman of the Conservative Party in 2012, staying in the post for three years.

The most high profile candidate to replace Mr Johnson so far is former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who launched his campaign on Friday saying “someone has to grip this moment and make the right decisions”.

Mr Sunak’s resignation from the cabinet on Tuesday helped trigger the mass walkout of ministers that forced the PM to stand down as Tory leader.

While several senior Tory MPs have endorsed his campaign, a No 10 source told the BBC there was “real disappointment” with Mr Sunak in Downing Street, saying the prime minister had “backed him to the hilt” by appointing him chancellor.

Mr Johnson has said he intends to stay on in Downing Street until a successor is chosen.

Suddenly the race is gathering pace.

Among the confirmed contenders for the Conservative leadership are some familiar faces as well as relative unknowns.

Those with a lower profile will need to try to cut through in a contest where experience is likely to count for a lot.

Cutting taxes and shrinking the state are familiar themes put forward by those declared so far.

Personality matters as well as policy though, and some candidates are emphasising their personal stories of success.

At this early stage the hopefuls have to show what sets them apart from the rest, while making a broad pitch for support from as many MPs and party members as possible.

Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch confirmed her candidacy in the Times , telling the paper she wanted a limited government and to “tell the truth”.

Writing in the Daily Express, Ms Braverman pledged she would bring in “rapid and large tax cuts” as leader.

Following his announcement, Mr Tugendhat – MP for the Kent seat of Tonbridge and Malling – told BBC South East: “I’ve spent 10, 15 years serving our country in uniform, I’ve spent six, seven years now serving our community in Parliament, and I’d like the chance to serve again because I think this country matters.”

Mr Wallace’s decision not to enter the contest came despite him topping leadership surveys run by the website Conservative Home – which is popular with grassroots Tories – and was the bookmakers’ favourite.

There will now be a lot of interest in which of the candidates he endorses, as getting him on board is likely to be a big boost to their campaign.

Filed Under: Uncategorized UK Politics, brexit boris johnson, tori johnson, boris johnson churchill, boris johnson brexit, tory leadership, conservative leadership race, alan johnson racing, allen johnson racing, enter the race, conservative leadership race canada

Brexit LIVE: ‘Greatest error’ Truss warned Boris’ departure will cripple post-EU ‘fantasy’

August 12, 2022 by www.express.co.uk Leave a Comment

Rishi Sunak promises new Brexit delivery department

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Mr Johnson’s exit from Number 10 will “bring down the curtain on the Brexit fantasy,” according to a commentator. Writing for the Irish Times, Eoin Burke-Kennedy argues that until now Covid and its fallout had provided a “smokescreen” for the damage caused by Britain’s “messy, and as yet unfinished” EU exit. In a scathing critique of the UK’s decision to leave the bloc, Mr Burke-Kennedy claims Brexit has caused travel chaos and spiralling inflation among other problems. He insists the “fantasy” of Brexit in Britain is over, as shown by a series of byelection defeats, particularly Tiverton and Honiton, which saw an unprecedented 30 percent swing to the Liberal Democrats. The solutions offered by “would-be leader Liz Truss” will fall short of capturing the national spirit and delivering a Brexit worth celebrating, he believes. Mr Burke-Kennedy concluded: “Drummed up in a fervour of nationalism and post-2008 populism but sold as an act of political and economic sovereignty, the Brexit project will go down as one of the great strategic errors in modern British history.”

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'Greatest error' Liz warned Boris departure to cripple post-EU 'fantasy'

‘Greatest error’ Liz warned Boris departure to cripple post-EU ‘fantasy’ (Image: GETTY)

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25 mins ago 11:25 Tara Fair

‘Made in Britain’ labels fuel £7.6bn post-Brexit surge in UK alcohol exports

Britain’s drinks exports has received a massive post-Brexit shot in the arm, surging by almost a fifth last year, new research has indicated.

In a huge endorsement of outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Global Britain strategy, UK brands are now seen as bywords for luxury the world over, the analysis, published by Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers Hazelwoods, concluded.

Drinks exports rocketed from £6.4billion in 2020 to £7.6billion in 2021 an increase of 19 percent, data indicates.

Global exports of Scotch rose by £4.51billion – although 19 percent – year-on-year.

Exports of whisky to the US also spiked thanks to the scrapping of tariffs imposed as part of a US-European trade dispute.

The measures were in place for a year until June 2021, with exports recovering sharply in the second half of 2021.

READ MORE

1 hour ago 10:46 Tara Fair

Remainer torn apart after sharing image of stocked shelves as Brexit dig: ‘Same here’

A Remoaner has sparked an online debate after he shared a picture of full supermarket shelves in the EU in an apparent Brexit dig.

He claimed that “Brexit voters” needed to “fess up” that domestic issues were caused by Brexit.

However, people were quick to mock the tweet, pointing out that Britain also had full shelves.

Simon Manning said on Twitter: “Fresh fruit and veg galore. No shortages of staff. Fuel at €1.68 (£1.42). All is good in the EU, affected by the same Covid pandemic and same Ukraine invasion.

“UK politicians and Brexit voters need to fess up that domestic issues are Brexit related and deliver their solution.”

However, others were quick to point out that food was readily available in Brexit Britain

Haighy replied in a tweet: “Yes same here in Wakefield. Payed £1.69 for petrol, no empty shelves at supermarket. What’s your point?”

Another user, Robbie, taking a dig at the EU’s energy crisis added: “Wow, I love Europe. Will the lights still work in the winter though?”

READ MORE

1 hour ago 10:24 Tara Fair

Expert blames Leo Varadkar for Protocol problems

Dublin-based eurosceptic Anthony Coughlan has suggested Leo Varadkar pulled the plug on talks that could have resolved the Brexit wrangle over the Irish border, shortly after becoming Taoiseach.

He said: “Leo Varadkar is the person primarily responsible for the problems associated with the Northern Ireland Protocol.

“When Mr Varadkar became Taoiseach in 2017 he ordered the promising contacts between the Irish and British Revenue authorities, initiated by his predecessor Enda Kenny, to cease.

“He did this in order to facilitate the EU’s desire to use the Irish border issue as a means to keep the whole of the UK in the EU single market and customs union.

“This was at a time when Theresa May and her advisers were willing to play along with that objective once she had lost her House of Commons majority in the 2017 UK general election.”

Expert blames Leo Varadkar for Protocol problems (Image: GETTY)

3 hours ago 08:53 Tara Fair

VDL warned she could be kicked out as she refuses to give cash

Ursula von der Leyen has been threatened to be overthrown after refusing to dish out recovery funds to Poland.

Poland’s leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has pledged his government will take no further steps to meet the EU Commission’s demands on the rule of law debate.

Poland has been waiting for €35 billion to be unlocked for its country’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic on the condition it would make changes to its judicial system.

Mr Kaczynski insisted Poland has now met its side of the deal with the EU executive and that it is prepared to take legal action against Ursula von der Leyen’s team unless the money is released.

Speaking to the pro-government Sieci news portal, he said: “We have shown maximum goodwill, but concessions have yielded nothing.

“It’s time to learn lessons.

“Since the European Commission is not fulfilling its obligation to Poland in this area, we have no reason to fulfil our obligations to the European Union.”

READ MORE

3 hours ago 08:51 Tara Fair

What is the Northern Ireland protocol?

The Northern Ireland protocol is the piece of legislation that prevents a hard border from being in place between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Before Brexit, it was easy to transport goods between Northern Ireland and the Republic because both sides were subject to the same EU rules.

However, after Brexit, a new system was needed as the EU has strict rules and requires border checks when certain goods arrive from non-EU countries.

The protocol agreed that there would be no checks at the Irish border but there would instead be checks on goods coming from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

However, the UK government now wants to rip up parts of the protocol and remove the need for goods checks between Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland protocol is the piece of legislation that prevents a hard border (Image: GETTY)

3 hours ago 08:34 Tara Fair

‘It should go now!’ Leigh voters FURIOUS over Liz Truss broken Brexit promise

A Leigh voter has expressed his fury over a broken Brexit promise from frontrunner Liz Truss.

Ms Truss today answered questions from voters in the Greater Manchester town in the hope of securing their votes.

They have until September 2 to put a cross behind either the current Foreign Secretary or former Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

During the question-and-answer session, a voter expressed his frustration at the failure of the Government – of which both leadership candidates have been significant members – to fulfil a long-touted Brexit promise.

Trevor Bell asked Ms Truss: “How can any government in the current situation justify keeping VAT on gas and electric?

“It was a Brexit promise that we would be free to get rid of that tax.

“It should go now.”

READ MORE

‘It should go now!’ Leigh voters FURIOUS over Liz Truss broken Brexit promise (Image: GETTY)

4 hours ago 08:16 Tara Fair

Sneering elites SILENCED by entrepreneur influx- Britain finally ‘unshackled’

Sneering elites have been silenced by an influx of American entrepreneurs poised to unleash the power of Brexit Britain.

Nile Gardiner, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher, has revealed a wave of American businessmen coming to the United Kingdom despite the liberal media “hissing” at Brexit.

Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Gardiner said: “The East and West Coast elites sneer at British sovereignty, worship Brussels and cheer the imminent departure of their hated transatlantic nemesis, Boris Johnson.”

But, he added: “Despite their mocking tone, however, there is a growing exodus of wealthy elites from big Democrat-run US states, particularly from California, with many executives now ironically relocating to Brexit Britain.

“As much as US elites like to hiss at Brexit, Global Britain, free of the shackles of the EU, is an increasingly attractive place to do business for Americans, especially in comparison to Left-wing California, frequently derided today as a socialist basket case by US conservatives.”

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, is amongst the people abandoning the US for Brexit Britain, as is former deputy Prime Minister and ardent Remainer Nick Clegg, who relocated to Silicon Valley for social media giant Meta in 2018.

4 hours ago 07:59 Tara Fair

UK meringue company ends all exports to EU over Brexit ‘disaster’

Meringue manufacturing firm Flower and White previously exported to 12 countries across the bloc. But the company’s owner Leanne Crowther said Brexit has been a “disaster” for her business, which is based in Telford.

Mrs Crowther said thousands of pounds worth of stock had been left stranded at ports due to confusion over rules for exporting food products.

She and her husband Brian decided to halt exports to the EU after six months of chaos.

Mrs Crowther said it had been “tricky to plan” for the future of her business before a Brexit deal was struck.

She told the BBC: “The problem we had was nobody really knew what was happening.

“Because we use egg, there was a real problem with ‘do we need to get a vet in to certify the egg?’ and we were being pushed from pillar to post from [the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs] and the Department for Trade and it was so difficult to understand.

“One person would tell us one thing and another would tell us another.”

READ MORE

UK meringue company ends all exports to EU over Brexit ‘disaster’ (Image: GETTY)

4 hours ago 07:45 Tara Fair

Brexit Britain set for huge win as 17 new factories to make UK manufacturing giant again

Brexit Britain’s manufacturing sector is poised a make a huge comeback with over 17 major new factories opening up.

Jefferson_MFG, an advocate for Britain’s manufacturing sector and the founder of Factory Now tweeted: “We don’t make anything anymore?

“Aston Martin, Moog, Britishvolt, Siemens, Johnson Matthey, Ciner, Forterra, Knauf, Envision AESC, Ball, Crown, Swizzels, Pensana, SeAH, Stannah, ITM Power and Rolls-Royce are just some of the manufacturers building new factories in the UK.”

Responding to this tweet, Richard Marks, of the University of Reading, tweeted: “Having spent 25 years as a system engineer working with British Manufacturing companies before leaving to be an industrial historian and being ridiculously busy for all of it, I can safely second this.

“British Manufacturing is alive & well, we just don’t talk about it enough !”

READ MORE

Brexit Britain set for huge win as 17 new factories to make UK manufacturing giant again (Image: GETTY)

4 hours ago 07:27 Tara Fair

Good morning

Good morning from London. I’m Tara Fair, I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments on Brexit. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TaraFair_

Filed Under: Uncategorized headlines, nation, politics, ctp_video, brexit live, liz truss, boris johnson, eu bloc, northern ireland protocol latest, brexit..., post brexit eu visa, post brexit living in spain, post brexit eu budget, post brexit eu nationals, boris johnson post brexit, post brexit live, post brexit living in france, post brexit living in europe, post brexit live in spain, toyota warns ‘no deal’ will spell post-brexit shutdown

How Indonesian Islamic politics shape mandatory hijab rules and uniform policies in school

August 12, 2022 by www.thejakartapost.com Leave a Comment

Sari Oktafiana (The Conversation Indonesia)
Jakarta   ● Fri, August 12, 2022 2022-08-12 14:09 0 c9040729547ca602062682df16b6ad3d 2 Academia hijab,Education,Islam,student Free

Late last month, a high school teacher in the Indonesian province of Yogyakarta reportedly forced a female Muslim student to wear the hijab – veils worn by Muslim women – causing her to become anxious and depressed .

As a response, the province’s government recently suspended the school’s principal and three teachers involved in the incident.

A 2021 report from Human Rights Watch shows that since 1990, there have been a growing number of national and regional laws regulating uniforms for Muslim girls and women in Indonesia’s education system.

The country’s National Commission on Violence Against Women ( Komnas Perempuan ) has also criticised these clothing standards , saying they might propagate gender bias and misogyny.

These Islamic clothing standards, however, are often seen as symbols of morality and social piety .

Islamic politics play a huge role in shaping hijab and uniform regulations in Indonesian schools, and also the social contexts that affect how these policies are implemented in the education sector.

The reality of Muslim attire in schools

To understand how Indonesia’s political climate affects hijab rules in schools, one can start by looking at the country’s 2014 ministerial regulation that govern school uniforms nationwide.

One section of the regulation states:

Muslim attires for female students are worn according to their personal beliefs and should comply with the predetermined type, model, and colour, to be used in academic activities.

A quick glance at the above phrasing shows that there seems to be no problem – female Muslim students are not compelled to wear “Muslim attire”.

Not only that, from a political perspective, the ministerial regulation was born from the government’s attempt to prevent discrimination against female Muslim students in regions such as Bali, where they are a minority.

The then education minister, Muhammad Nuh, said the law was designed to protect the religious expression of female Muslim students. It was intended to give them space to express their faith through the choice to wear, or to not wear , hijabs and other forms of Islamic attire.

However, according to reports from the National Commission on Violence Against Women and Human Rights Watch, these regulations are often interpreted differently by schools. Education institutions often see it as a lawful basis to “encourage” the use of hijabs among female Muslim students who have yet to wear them.

The ministerial regulation, for instance, says that school uniforms should “strengthen national identity”, and cultivate discipline and state obedience among students.

This spirit is what gives room for schools to establish policies and rules that conform with regional contexts – and in turn the dominant political narrative.

As regions in Indonesia increasingly see Islamic attire as symbols of morality , many schools then push female students to wear hijabs. We saw this in the recent case in Yogyakarta , and even targeted non-Muslim students such as in the 2021 incident in West Sumatra .

How did Indonesia arrive at this point?

Islamic politics in the education sector

The use of hijabs as a representation of Islamic identity in the education sector is tightly related to the revival of Islamic politics in the global, national, and local stage.

From 1965 to 1985 , the strained relation between the Indonesian New Order government and numerous Muslim groups, not to mention the state’s hostile attitude toward Islamic politics, resulted in the ban of hijabs in all public schools .

Students who wore hijabs were met with suspicion, intimidated by teachers and even the military, and were often threatened with expulsion.

The government’s hostility was in turn met with resistance – primarily from the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the Indonesian Islamic Propagation Council (DII), and the Islamic social organisation Muhammadiyah.

This resistance intensified after the 1979 Iranian Revolution . Iran’s decision to make the hijab compulsory for all women in the country inspired many female Indonesian Muslims.

At the time, the hijab was seen as a symbol of rebellion against the West, a social instrument to combat “moral degradation”, and a form of opposition against the domination of Western politics, economy, and culture. This symbol of being part of the global Muslim “ imagined community ” then became the foundation of the “hijabi movement” in Indonesia.

This movement then spread even further in Indonesian education, particularly universities, throughout the 1980s . This was thanks to the advocacy of a number of Islamic organisations in many campuses across Indonesia.

The presence of the Muslim Brotherhood ( Ikhwanul Muslimin ) in Indonesia , for instance, gave rise to political activism in notable campuses such as Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta; Universitas Brawijaya in Malang, East Java; Universitas Indonesia in Jakarta, and the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) in West Java.

The Indonesian Muslim Students (PII) also developed advocacy strategies targeted at Muslim students in numerous mosques and cities, including the Mujahidin Mosque in Bandung and the Syuhada Mosque in Yogyakarta.

Then, from 1991 to 1998, the tension between the New Order government and Muslim groups started to thaw. These massive Islamic movements succeeded in repairing political relations with the government and nationalist-secular factions.

It resulted in the Ministry of Education passing a 1991 decree that finally allowed hijabs and Muslim attire in pubic schools. Not only that, the movements also strengthened Islamic values within Indonesian society.

The use of hijabs among students in the 1990s became further widespread as the presence of Islamic clubs or organisations, known as rohis , continued to grow within schools. Wearing the hijab in this period was seen as a symbol of Muslim piety, rebirth ( hijrah ), and identity.

As the Reformation Era ushered in 1998, democratisation in Indonesia gave even more room for the rise of Islamic politics and religious expression in the public sphere.

The significance of hijabs in post-1998 Indonesia then experienced a shift. Religious anthropologist Nancy Smith-Hefner states that the hijab has grown not only to symbolise individual interpretations of Islam , but also as a lifestyle, trend, and a form of social control when interacting with the opposite gender.

A nation fractured

Two decades after the 1998 Reformation, the use of hijabs in schools and campuses is still entrenched in political debate. This reflects in the tension between conservative-fundamentalist Islamic groups, and nationalist-pluralist and mainstream Islamic groups such as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

The battle for how the hijab should be regulated in schools shows how social cohesion within Indonesian society continue to erode – particularly as a consequence of sharpening political polarisation after the emergence of democracy and free speech at the end of the 20th century.

The government, civil society, schools, students, parents, and Muslim groups in Indonesia must start to cultivate dialog to bridge these differences.

It is vital for Indonesia’s education sector to ensure access and opportunity for various groups within society to express their choices and interests – including students and the faculty’s decision to wear, or to not wear, the hijab. The Conversation

—

The writer is a PhD Researcher at KU Leuven

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

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Pro-life groups blame Kansas amendment loss on ‘abortion industry’ campaign

August 12, 2022 by www.newsweek.com Leave a Comment

Kansas voters last week became the first in the nation to weigh in on abortion access following the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

On August 2, Kansas voters resoundingly defeated a proposed amendment to the state constitution 59% to 41% that would have removed the right to an abortion and would have allowed state lawmakers to pass further restrictions in the future. The vote came as both a shock and a disappointment to pro-life leaders, who blamed misinformation spread by pro-abortion groups for the defeat of the referendum.

“Sadly, thousands and thousands of babies will die in Kansas,” president of the National Right to Life Committee Carol Tobias said in a statement released after the primary results.

The referendum, referred to as the Value Them Both Amendment, was backed by several pro-life advocacy groups including the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the nation’s oldest pro-life organization. A representative from the NRLC told Newsweek that the organization was in constant contact with its affiliates in Kansas during campaigning for the amendment, and that the group plans on continuing to be involved in campaigns before the November elections.

When asked about how the NRLC may adapt its campaign strategy for the midterms, the organization said it plans to keep a closer eye on the narrative spread by pro-choice groups.

“We are much more aware of the effect of the pro-abortion distortions and misinformation that helped the abortion industry win the Kansas referendum,” the NRLC said in a statement to Newsweek , “including the misinformation that pro-life legislation would prevent treatment of miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies or measures to save a woman’s life.”

“All of those assertions by the abortion lobby are false,” the NRLC added.

Other pro-life groups, such as the Value Them Both Coalition, released a statement following the primary election as well, reiterating that “over the last six months, Kansans endured an onslaught of misinformation from radical left organizations that spent millions of out-of-state dollars to spread lies about the Value Them Both Amendment.”

“Sadly, the mainstream media propelled the left’s false narrative, contributing to the confusion that misled Kansans about the amendment,” the statement read.

The Value Them Both Amendment proposed that state representatives would be allowed to pass laws regarding abortion “including, but not limited to, laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or circumstance of necessity to save the life of the mother.”

The NRLC told Newsweek that the organization does not support pro-life legislation that would prevent life-saving measures for the mother or treatment for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages.

Pro-choice organizations who campaigned against the amendment, such as the Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, claimed on their campaign website that the language for the Value Them Both Amendment was purposefully confusing for voters, and that a vote in favor of the referendum would give lawmakers the chance to ban abortions without exceptions such as in cases involving rape or incest.

In a tweet following the results of the Kansas primaries, Kansas for Constitutional Freedom congratulated voters for blocking the “dangerous anti-abortion constitutional amendment.”

“This is truly a historic day for Kansas and for America,” read the tweet. “Freedom has prevailed.”

Political observers are taking the Kansas primary results as a sign that abortion may be a winning issue for Democrats in the midterm elections. Donald Trump topped Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election by 15 points in Kansas, where less than two years later a pro-life amendment was defeated by 18 points.

According to daily polling by Civiqs, an online polling company, independent voters — who make up 41% of the American electorate according to Gallup — are increasingly supporting legal abortion in all cases, jumping from 25% at the end of August 2021 to 30% as of Monday.

In Kansas, voters have also increased their support for abortion, from 21% supporting legal abortion in all cases in August 2021 to 26% as of Monday, according to Civiqs’ polls.

When asked if the Kansas primary results point toward a shift in Americans opinion on abortion across party lines, the NRLC said that striking down the referendum will result in “totally unrestricted and unlimited abortion up until birth.”

“This is not the majority opinion of Americans,” the NRLC said.

According to Civiqs, 33% of Americans support abortion in all cases as of Wednesday, the winning category out of the voters polled.

The vote against the Value Them Both Amendment did not change current state restrictions on abortion in Kansas, where the procedure is currently banned after 22 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Politics, Abortion Rights, Kansas, Pro-life, Midterm elections, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, ..., pro life groups, pro life abortion, pro life abortion arguments, pro life abortion articles, pro life abortion essays, pro life abortion facts, pro life against abortion, pro life pro choice abortion, pro life campaigns, pro life campaigners

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