Good reason to doubt honesty of new antiabortion group getting Kansas taxpayer money | Opinion

Does truth matter to Kansas’ antiabortion conservatives?

The question pops up — once again — because State Treasurer Steven Johnson last week announced that a newly-formed nonprofit group, the Kansas Pregnancy Care Network, was being picked to run the state’s new $2 million “Alternatives to Abortion” program. KPCN was chosen over two other out-of-state bidders that met eligibility requirements.

KPCN will serve “women facing the difficulties of an unplanned pregnancy,” Johnson said in a press release.

How well the effort will help those women is an open question. Legislators created the program earlier this year over Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto.

It’s based on a similar state-backed effort in Texas that has been accused of misleading women with scare tactics about the alleged health consequences of having an abortion. And other reports suggest antiabortion “crisis pregnancy centers” often lure women with deceptive ads targeted at online searches for terms “abortion clinic near me” and “Planned Parenthood.”

Maybe the new Kansas program will operate with more fidelity to the truth. But there’s reason for doubt.

Why? Because the president of KPCN’s board is none other than former Congressman Tim Huelskamp.

You remember Huelskamp don’t you? He played a brief — ugly — role in last year’s big statewide vote on an antiabortion amendment to the Kansas Constitution.

Huelskamp’s Do Right PAC paid $32,092 to Alliance Forge, a GOP-linked tech firm, which in turn sent out a deeply misleading text message to Kansas voters in the days leading up to that election.

“Women in KS are losing their choice on reproductive rights,” the anonymous sender wrote. “Voting YES on the Amendment will give women a choice. Vote YES to protect women’s health.”

In fact, the exact opposite was true. A yes vote on the amendment was a vote to give the Kansas Legislature the power to ban abortion in the state.

Voters weren’t fooled. More than a few were enraged by the dirty trick. The amendment lost, overwhelmingly. Abortion is still legal, and highly regulated, in Kansas.

And when reporters contacted Huelskamp about his connection to the texts, he “hung up abruptly” rather than answer questions about efforts to pull the wool over the eyes of pro-choice Kansans. He later claimed there was “no evidence” of misconduct.

Pro-life cause more important than democracy?

Where to start?

Let’s go with the obvious: If Kansas Republicans took their part in governing this state seriously — if they cared about doing right by their constituents more than they wanted to wallow in their ideological biases — they wouldn’t hand over $2 million in taxpayer money to a figure with such giant questions about honesty in his recent past.

This isn’t about ideology. It’s about integrity.

I fervently believe that it’s possible to be pro-life and truthful, and that most people who claim the “pro-life” mantle really do conduct themselves honestly, even if I disagree with them. Couldn’t Kansas Republicans find one of those folks to run their new program?

You almost wonder if they’re trying to send a message.

Kansas conservatives have spent the year since the amendment vote demonstrating their antiabortion bona fides. It’s not just the new “alternatives” program — they’ve also imposed requirements that women possibly seeking abortions be given sketchy information about the procedure. Attorney General Kris Kobach, meanwhile, has successfully warned the chain pharmacy Walgreens against providing abortion pills in the state.

All of this was to be expected. Voters made clear their preference to protect abortion rights in Kansas. Conservatives don’t much care. For true believers, the antiabortion cause is more important than democracy. So the fight goes on.

The selection of a Huelskamp-led group, though, demonstrates something more than GOP disregard for the democratic process in Kansas. It’s an expression of sheer contempt — for the voters who defeated the amendment, and for the notion that conservatives have to play by any rules of honest or fair conduct.

The lesson? There are no red lines for the Kansas right when it comes to abortion politics. Play the cards right, and you might even get a big fat state contract.