Here in Kansas, we held a vote on adding an amendment to the state constitution that would codify keeping abortion legislation in the hands of elected legislators rather than in the hands of the selected, not elected, KS Supreme Court jurists. (KS has a bizarre method of SC selection — look it up.)
Because the amendment was on a ballot the same year of the Dobbs decision, and because of the complicated constitutional issue, Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups flooded the state with ads telling hysterical women that they would die, DIE, because there would be no more abortions in KS. Of course the low-info voters swallowed it whole.
Kim, I don’t know if anyone has hard data showing that political ads sway voters’ views on important issues; probably the biggest impact is encouraging single issue voters to get out and vote for or against something they already care about. As for your comment on low-information voters, if they are not seeing information on the issue I question how much impact political ads could b”have; in our house, when the ads come on, we hit the mute button and do something else for a few minutes.
Perhaps you hit mute, and that’s good advice. However, I live here. I know of the huge amounts of out-of-state money that poured into KS. If PP and other pro-abortion groups didn’t think such expenditures would be worth it, why would they shovel big bucks into a no-account flyover state like Kansas?
A few deaths here and there? Not that preborn children matter.
Here in Kansas, we held a vote on adding an amendment to the state constitution that would codify keeping abortion legislation in the hands of elected legislators rather than in the hands of the selected, not elected, KS Supreme Court jurists. (KS has a bizarre method of SC selection — look it up.)
Because the amendment was on a ballot the same year of the Dobbs decision, and because of the complicated constitutional issue, Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups flooded the state with ads telling hysterical women that they would die, DIE, because there would be no more abortions in KS. Of course the low-info voters swallowed it whole.
Kim, I don’t know if anyone has hard data showing that political ads sway voters’ views on important issues; probably the biggest impact is encouraging single issue voters to get out and vote for or against something they already care about. As for your comment on low-information voters, if they are not seeing information on the issue I question how much impact political ads could b”have; in our house, when the ads come on, we hit the mute button and do something else for a few minutes.
Perhaps you hit mute, and that’s good advice. However, I live here. I know of the huge amounts of out-of-state money that poured into KS. If PP and other pro-abortion groups didn’t think such expenditures would be worth it, why would they shovel big bucks into a no-account flyover state like Kansas?
Dishonesty around mifepristone kills more adult women than any abortion law.
https://principlesvstribes.substack.com/p/the-politics-that-killed-amber-thurman
Excellent article. Thanks for the link.