A bill to strictly limit abortions after 22 weeks based on disputed research that fetuses can feel pain is on its way to Gov. Sam Brownback, who has indicated he will sign it into law.
A second bill to require consent of both parents for minors to get an abortion and to require doctors to provide the state with more detailed records for abortions also is headed to the governor.
The House approved minor changes in both bills today.
House Bill 2218, the fetal pain bill, represents a significant tightening of the availability of late-term abortions. It would place strict limits on abortions after 22 weeks based on disputed research that fetuses can feel pain at that point of development.
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The final vote to send the fetal pain bill to the governor was 94-28.
"This is a significant advancement in the public discourse that the child in the mother's womb is a living human being," said Rep. Steve Brunk, R-Bel Aire. "Before, viability was defined by our ability to keep a child alive outside the womb based on the existing technology, not the development of the human being. This provides a more appropriate benchmark for late-term abortions.
"It is past due and appropriate that this kind of legislation should be passed in state legislatures across the country," he said.
Opponents attempted once again to dispute the research that is the basis of HB 2218.
"No one really knows and it's based on false research," said Rep. Barbara Bollier, R-Mission Hills. "It's not universally held and I would be embarrassed to be a state that bases its laws on untruths."
Rep. Lance Kinzer, R-Olathe, pointed to several journals and studies that backed the development of pain receptors at 22 weeks.
"The medical evidence is compelling and well-documented," Kinzer said.
A motion to nonconcur by Rep Judith Loganbill, D-Wichita, was rejected.
The other abortion legislation, House Bill 2035, would require parental consent for anyone under 18 to have an abortion. Current law requires that one parent be notified, but neither parent can veto a daughter's abortion.
The bill passed 100-22. The lone speaker on the bill was Loganbill.
"I opposed this bill in the House, I opposed it in the Senate, and am opposed to it now. I urge you to vote against it," she said just prior to the final vote.
Other provisions of HB 2035 would:
* Allow the state attorney general's office to prosecute alleged abortion crimes when the local district or county attorney has decided not to pursue charges.
* Allow a woman's close family members to sue if they believe an illegal abortion was performed.
* Require providers of abortions to provide patients with a newly revised informed consent statement including wording that abortion "terminates the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."
* Expand record keeping on late-term abortions to require providers to give state officials a specific medical diagnosis asserting that the procedure is necessary to preserve the life or major bodily functions of the pregnant woman.
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