Earlier this week, Kansas voters overwhelmingly chose to protect the right to get an abortion in their state. The Republican-led measure would have given the Republican-controlled state legislature the power to increase abortion restrictions or ban abortion outright.

This is a huge win not just for the state of Kansas, but for the abortion rights movement nationwide. It’s nothing short of history-making.

Here’s why the Kansas abortion vote is a very big deal

The referendum vote in Kansas was the first glimpse of how U.S. voters feel about abortion rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this summer, and the first time abortion rights has been on the ballot since the decision in June.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said: “Voters in Kansas turned out in record numbers to reject extreme efforts to amend the state constitution to take away a woman’s right to choose and open the door for a statewide ban. This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and should have the right to make their own healthcare decisions.”

Related: Abortion bans could have unintended consequences for fertility treatments like IVF

The Kansas abortion vote victory was won by a 59-41 margin in a state where Republican voters massively outnumber Democrat voters, is a fair testament to how voters across the country feel about abortion rights. Slate roughly estimates that 65% of voters nationwide would reject similar legislation to restrict abortion rights—much like Kansas voters did. Because if 50% of Kansas voters are in favor of abortion rights, it’s more than fair to say voters in other states feel the same way.

Research conducted in 2018 by the Public Religion Research Institute—a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research at the intersection of religion, culture, and public policy—suggested Kansas was among the red states and battleground states like Texas, Georgia and North Carolina where the public was almost evenly split when asked if abortion should be legal.

It seems the overturning of Roe v. Wade significantly increased Kansas voters’ desire for abortion rights.

CNN reports more than twice the usual number of voters showed up to vote in Tuesday’s primary—more than 900,000 people took part in the primary. For context, during the 2020 presidential, 1.3 million Kansas votes showed up to the polls. Nearly one million voters showing up to vote in a primary election before a November midterm is very, very significant.

Related: The majority of women who seek abortions are already mothers

While abortion isn’t on the ballot in every state for November’s midterm elections, electing pro-choice candidates appears to be more important than ever. The Kansas abortion vote shows that even in typically conservative states, voters largely support abortion rights.

“Kansans bluntly rejected anti-abortion politicians’ attempts at creating a reproductive police state,” Kimberly Inez McGuire, executive director of Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, told the Associated Press.

“Today’s vote was a powerful rebuke and a promise of the mounting resistance.”