Stephen Colbert Thinks It’s Hilarious Kansas Abortion Ban Failed (Video)

“That isn’t just a win, that’s a Kansasskicking,” Colbert jokes about overwhelming support for Abortion rights in the state

On Wednesday’s “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert talked a lot about the primary elections that happened all over the country, which resulted in a bunch of right wing extremists who support Trump winning nominations.

But he did get to spend some time on the least depressing outcome of the night: The resounding victory for abortion rights in Kansas.

See, in 2019 the Kansas Supreme Court confirmed that the right to an abortion is enshrined in the state’s constitution. So this year, Republicans — Kansas is overwhelmingly Republican — introduced a ballot initiative to change the state’s constitution to outlaw abortion instead.

Supporters of the bill even rolled out some rather innovative (and unsubtle tactics) to push the bill over the finish line. First, it was written to be very confusing — experts said this was done on purpose in order to trick opponents into voting for it. Then they scheduled the vote during a primary election instead of the general election in November. That’s because fewer people traditionally turn out for primaries as it is, Kansas is a deeply Republican state, and primaries are closed to independents. Finally, an unknown person or persons sent out texts lying blatantly that a “yes” vote would uphold abortion rights.

Despite all of that, the bill failed, historically. Voters showed up in record numbers, and rejected the bill 58%-42%,

“That isn’t just a win, that’s a Kansasskicking,” Colbert joked. “And may I remind you, Kansas is a state so bright red it looks like me after 30 seconds on the beach.”

Colbert then ran down the various “dirty tricks” Republicans tried in service of the bill, including those texts we mentioned above. Colbert quoted the text verbatim: “Women in KS are losing their choice on reproductive rights. Voting yes on the amendment will give women a choice. Vote YES to protect women’s health.”

“They tried to trick them into voting the wrong way,” Colbert said smirking. “This is the most misleading political message since 1952’s ‘I like Ike too much to burden him with the presidency. Vote Stevenson.’ Colbert joked.

After that segment, Colbert talked about Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, where she implied support for an independent Taiwan and said “America’s determination to preserve democracy here in Taiwan and around the world remains ironclad.”

“Hell yes! Americans will always, always, always, always, we will always fight to preserve democracy in Taiwan,” Colbert said after explaining that. “Will we preserve democracy in America? No spoilers, please.”

You can watch the whole monologue above.

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