Police remove protesters after they lie down outside Kansas Senate over Medicaid

Protesters angry that the Kansas Senate hasn’t advanced Medicaid expansion swarmed the chamber’s entrance on Tuesday shouting “people are dying, shame on you!” Police removed 23 people who laid on the floor.

Protesters also unfurled a banner in the Capitol rotunda reading “BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS” with the name of Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican who has refused to allow expansion to come to a floor vote over the failure of the House to pass an anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution.

The protest underscored the frustration among expansion advocates over how a proposal to expand health coverage to more than 130,000 Kansans has become tied to a fight over the amendment, which asserts the state constitution doesn’t guarantee the right to an abortion.

Expansion opponents contend approving the proposal without the amendment could open the door to Kansas paying for abortions using state Medicaid dollars, an idea expansion supporters call ridiculous.

Gov. Laura Kelly and Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, have been championing a compromise proposal. Both say they need an additional vote in the Senate to bypass Wagle’s blockade.

“It’s being blocked by one person. We need one person to come over and vote on the bill,” said Marsha Cox, a Topeka resident who participated in the demonstration.

The protest began around midday as demonstrators lined the third-floor rotunda, shouting pro-expansion slogans. As the Senate neared its 2:30 p.m. session, they moved toward the Senate chamber. Ushers in red coats and uniformed police stood at the entrance in a tense standoff.

More than a dozen demonstrators laid down on the floor and continued chanting. Others in motorized wheelchairs also positioned themselves at the entrance. At the same time, the pro-expansion banner was unfurled on the opposite side of the rotunda.

The shouts could be heard inside the Senate, but senators went ahead with their session.

Capitol Police, an extension of the Kansas Highway Patrol, eventually brought the demonstrators who had laid down to their feet and led them away. Police did not appear to handcuff anyone.

Highway Patrol Trooper Don Hughes later told reporters that law enforcement removed 23 people, but that no one was arrested. He said information would be turned over to the district attorney, who would decide whether to bring charges.

“They were disrupting business, blocking the chamber and preventing people from going in and out,” Hughes said.

Tuesday marked the most aggressive pro-expansion protests in the Kansas Capitol since police arrested protesters who were shouting in the Senate last May.

“We are grateful for our law enforcement who ensured legislative business could be safely conducted so we could do our jobs for the people of Kansas,” Wagle said in a statement.

Wagle said it makes “no sense” to add able-bodied adults to a “broken government-run healthcare system.”

“I’ve heard it loud and clear; Kansans do not want taxpayer funded abortions,” she added.

But Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, said the demonstration shows what happens when debate is stifled.

“We need to have a debate on the Senate floor on Medicaid expansion,” Hensley said. “It’s long overdue.”

This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 4:44 PM.