KC Mayor Lucas says Kansas abortion vote to have ‘huge repercussions’ for country
Kansas voters’ overwhelming rejection of a constitutional amendment that would have allowed state lawmakers to ban abortion will have “huge repercussions in the rest of the country,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Thursday.
He pointed out that a number of Republicans who voted for Kris Kobach as the nominee for attorney general also voted “no” on the constitutional amendment.
“What that tells you is that conservatives are, lots of conservatives, are even saying they’ve gone too far,” Lucas said on the ‘”Capehart” podcast hosted by Jonathan Capehart, associate editor of the Washington Post.
State legislators and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who joked about taking away abortion rights in Rome, have gone too far, he said.
“I think this is something that needs to be shared and needs to part of every November (election) campaign,” Lucas said. “I think that any candidate or Democrat mainly, although there may be a few Republicans still reasonable on this issue, should make this the centerpiece of what their discussion will be.”
He said it’s a very clear human rights issue.
“Do you stand for the rights of women and families to make their own decisions?” Lucas said. “I think Kansas showed that most people, conservatives, liberals, what have you, do.”
During the 30-minute podcast, Lucas defended crossing state lines and helping urge Kansas residents to vote to protect abortion rights. Because he believes that access to reproductive rights is a core human rights issue, anyone who has an opportunity to make a difference should, he said.
He said he hopes Missouri joins other states who have an abortion rights referendum coming up. He said people don’t want state control of their bodies and choices.
Lucas also addressed violent crime, saying he’s not looking for extremes when he’s talking about gun laws. He recalled how Missouri once required permits to carry concealed firearms and they had training on how to use them. But that has changed with constitutional carry laws.
He said the loosening of gun laws have led to a “Wild Wild West” style of living where there are gun battles in the streets and against police officers.
“Most of the offenses that are occurring are largely because of people who are getting in fights and disputes,” he said. “This isn’t the drug wards of the 1980s. This isn’t even, in many cases, gangland violence that we might remember from the 1990s.”
Lucas also said gun manufacturers and distributors need to be held accountable for illegal firearms streaming into the city much like the tobacco companies were in the 1990s and 2000s.
Missouri, he said, needs to be made safer because it leads the country in the number of homicides of Black people.
“It is incredibly unsafe if you’re a Black person to be in this state,” said Lucas. “We have these great American cities, we’re competing with places like Minneapolis and Denver for business to come here, but we can’t keep people safe.”
