Red-state Kansas is considered an abortion destination after the state supreme court said it found the legal right for abortion in the Kanas Constitution, so voters today will decide whether to amend their constitution and declare no such right exists.
Jean Gawdun of Kansans for Life tells AFN abortion activists are being dishonest about the ballot issue. First, she says, they are lying that approving the amendment would mean a ban on abortion.
“The Value Them Both amendment is not a ban on abortion at all,” she insists. “As a matter of fact, the only thing that actually it prohibits is taxpayer funding of abortion.”
Chuck Weber with the Kansas Catholic Conference reiterates that point. "It is actually an abortion-neutral amendment," he explains. "It does not ban abortion, but it does take us back from this very tilted legal landscape that we now have in Kansas where basically abortion is unlimited and unregulated under the law."
Weber offers a warning. "Unless we pass the Value Them Both amendment, once our pro-life laws are challenged – and some of them already have been – we're going to have unlimited and unregulated abortion in Kansas."
He explains what "unlimited and unregulated abortion" would mean. "We have a law banning taxpayer-funded abortion in Kansas right now," he states. "According to [a ruling by] the Kansas State Supreme Court … that law and all other laws touching on abortion are 'presumed unconstitutional.' So, this is a very scary thing for us as pro-lifers."
In addition, Weber says, the state law requiring teenagers who want to get an abortion to get permission and consent from parents would be wiped from the books.
Opponents also argue passage would mean a ban on treatment for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. That dishonest claim being made nationwide by abortion supporters but is one that is also untrue. Derek Schmidt, the Kanas attorney general, has issued a legal opinion to dispute that claim.
“Because, in law,” Gawdun explains, “ectopic pregnancies are considered to be a life-of-the-mother situation, and every abortion law in Kansas has protections for life of the mother.”
Editor's note: Comments from Kansas Catholic Conference added after story was originally posted.
