In June, the United States Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that recognized a woman's constitutional right to abortion.
But poll after poll has shown that most Americans believe a woman should have a right to an abortion. This is true even in red states such as Kansas, where people recently voted to keep protections for abortion rights in their state constitution.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid discussed this on Wednesday.
Speaking on The ReidOut, Reid described what happened in Kansas as an "FU" to conservatives and the Republican agenda, per Fox News.
"Kansas had its own message to send, delivering a stunning FU to the right’s shock and awe campaign against bodily autonomy," Reid began.
"It was testament to desire for abortion rights in this country in one of America’s reddest states with even rubier red pockets, rural, conservative, MAGA, where voters resoundingly rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed lawmakers to ban abortion in the state."
Reid then drew a parallel between banning access to abortion and slavery.
"In much clearer terms the right to an abortion will remain in the Kansas constitution, a state constitution, by the way, that in its original form was built on opposition to slavery," Reid said.
"I think it’s actually poetic that it happened in Kansas. Because this is a state that wrestled with the question of who owns people. It wrestled with the question of slavery, and this question is a question of who owns you, who owns your body," she continued.
Likening banning abortion to slavery, Reid slammed SCOTUS Justice Samuel Alito, who penned the majority opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year.
In his opinion, Alito said that "your state owns your body," according to Reid.
"The minute you become pregnant your state owns your body and your state can tell you what to do with it. Sorry, no luck. You don’t own yourself," is how the MSNBC host put it.
The results of the Kansas abortion referendum shocked even some well-informed Democrats, according to a recent report from CNN.
Democratic insiders now hope voters will reward their pro-choice stance in the upcoming midterm elections, which will take place in November.
Republicans are expected to win both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but some liberals believe conservatives overplayed their hand on abortion and will not be able to win a large number of seats this fall.
