Kansas voters rejected Value Them Both. Republicans’ answer? Redefine ‘abortion.’
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Republican lawmakers sent bills redefining abortion and mandating medically disputed information on the reversibility of abortion pills to Gov. Laura Kelly early Friday morning, despite the objection of Democrats pointing to the Aug. 2 election results.
Kansas voters overwhelmingly rejected the anti-abortion constitutional amendment Value Them Both in August, which would have specified that the state constitution does not grant the right to abortion and granted the Legislature greater authority to regulate or ban the procedure.
Sen. Beverly Gossage, R-Eudora, said opponents' messaging against the amendment inspired the push to redefine abortion and clear up confusion.
"This was an abortion definition basically stating what an abortion is not," Gossage said. "It is not an ectopic pregnancy. It is not contraceptives. It is not removing a dead unborn child who died of a result of natural causes in utero, or accident, trauma or criminal assault of a pregnant woman."
Legislators push to require doctors to share shaky abortion pill info
House Bill 2264 also requires abortion providers to tell patients that medical abortions using mifepristone pills are reversible, and providers could face both criminal and civil penalties if notifications are not given.
"(It's) a woman's right to know," Gossage said. "Basically it is saying if you are a woman, if you are seeking an abortion, you do have the right to know that there is such a thing as APR, abortion pill reversal, possibility for you."
More: Kansas tries to require abortion reversal pill disclosure — despite dispute over science
Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, said abortion pill reversal is "safe and effective."
"Anytime you can have a chance to save a human being's life, I say go for it," he said.
But Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, said the legislation is based on a study by an anti-abortion activist that didn't follow medical research standards.
"This is bad policy because it requires physicians to lie to their patients because members of this body think they know better than those doctors," Sykes said.
More: Shrugging off August 2022 abortion vote, Kansas Senate passes two anti-abortion bills
Sen. Pat Pettey, D-Kansas City, said it forces medical misinformation on women.
"We all want women to be empowered to make the best decisions for themselves and their family," she said. "Lying to them does not empower them, it endangers them."
Republican lawmakers may have votes to override any Kelly veto on abortion bills
A similar abortion pill reversal bill reached Kelly's desk in 2019 and was vetoed, falling one vote short of an override.
In late-night votes, both houses had a path to a veto-proof majority if absent Republican lawmakers voted for the bill. Reps. Mark Schreiber, R-Emporia, and David Younger, R-Ulysses, were the lone GOP members to oppose the bill in either the House or Senate.
Meanwhile, legislators sent the governor a bill stripping abortion clinics from the state health care stabilization fund, which provides liability insurance, while also adding maternity centers to the list of allowed beneficiaries. Lawmakers also passed so-called "born alive" legislation premised on the scenario of children born alive after a failed abortion, created income tax credits for donations to anti-abortion counseling centers and increased taxpayer funding to those centers.
More: Kansas lawmakers send first abortion-related bill to governor since Aug. 2 election
Opponents fear that changing the definition of abortion is an early step in preparing for a second try at an anti-abortion constitutional amendment. Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office suggested another amendment attempt could happen during argument before the Kansas Supreme Court last month.
Sykes said legislators "must listen to the people" after the Aug. 2 vote.
"Nearly 60% of Kansas — Democrats, Republicans and independents — voted no on giving elected representatives and state senators more power to pass laws regarding abortion," she said.
Sen. Rick Billinger, R-Goodland, replied that "in my district, the 40th, they did vote to abolish abortion."
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas Republicans pass new abortion definition and pill reversal bill
