Kansas bill would outlaw common form of abortion

A bill introduced Friday by a Mulvane Republican would ban the majority of abortions in Kansas.

The bill, drafted by the Kansas Coalition for Life, would restrict a broad range of procedures, including suction abortions, which are commonly performed in the first trimester.

It goes further than Senate Bill 95, already passed by the Kansas Senate this session, which restricts a specific type of procedure performed in the second trimester.

Rep. Pete DeGraaf, R-Mulvane, introduced the bill in the House Committee on Federal and State Affairs, one of the few committees exempt from a deadline this week for committees to pass bills.

The bill outlaws any abortion in which the head of the fetus is separated or collapsed. Mark Gietzen, chair of the Kansas Coalition for Life, said the bill’s language is intended to include the suction method.

In these abortions, also known as aspiration abortions, a tube is inserted into the uterus and its contents are removed using suction from an electric pump or a handheld syringe, according to the abortion-rights website Our Bodies Ourselves.

The suction method accounted for 72 percent of abortions performed in the first trimester nationwide in 2010, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Elise Higgins, the lobbyist for Planned Parenthood, said in an e-mail that the bill “is just the latest in four years of increasingly dangerous abortion restrictions in Kansas.” Higgins also said bills like this “risk women’s lives by preventing doctors from providing them the safest and best care for their individual circumstances.”

The bill does not yet have a number.

DeGraaf emphasized that he supported SB 95 but said this additional measure was needed.

This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Kansas bill would outlaw common form of abortion."