Will Kansas pursue Texas-style abortion restrictions? Here’s what stands in the way.
While lawmakers in Missouri and other red states plan bills modeled after the nation’s strictest abortion law that just took effect in Texas — barring all abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy — Kansas legislators are unlikely to follow.
A major reason is the 2019 state Supreme Court ruling that the Kansas constitution guarantees the right to an abortion. Voters will decide next August whether to retain that guarantee or remove it by passing the “Value them Both” amendment. The title refers to protecting the lives of mothers and the unborn.
“There’s no thought of other legislation at the moment. Just passing ‘Value Them Both’ is absolutely what the priority is,” said Rep. Susan Humphries, a Wichita Republican.
Proponents of the amendment say their goal is simply to protect existing abortion regulations in Kansas. But abortion rights advocates view its passage as the clearest path to more stringent restrictions.
“(Abortion opponents) mission is to end abortion in the state of Kansas. Their goal is not simply to pass restrictions that chip away at the edges. If that was their intent you wouldn’t need a constitutional change to do that,” Rachel Sweet, director of public policy for Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
The strategy underlying the Texas law, bypassing judicial review and leaving enforcement to the public instead of government, could be successful in the Kansas courts. But that is by no means assured, Elisabeth Smith, state policy director at the Center for Reproductive Rights said.
“The Kansas constitution right now protects the right to abortion and any attempts to limit that right has to clear a really high bar,” Smith said.
In the meantime, Kansas abortion opponents and advocates both regard the Texas law as a watershed, the strongest sign yet that federal abortion protections may be waning. A challenge to Roe v. Wade is scheduled to reach the U.S. Supreme Court this year.
Anti-abortion activists say the increasing number of people coming from Texas to terminate pregnancies would establish the state as a regional “destination” if it maintains constitutional protection.
Abortion rights activists warn that legislators in Kansas — a state with a deep anti-abortion history — will follow Texas’ lead if the constitutional protection is eliminated.
Schaunta James-Boyd, Co-Executive Director of Trust Women abortion clinic in Wichita, said the organization has seen a “tenfold increase in demand” and that about half the calls they’re getting are from people in Texas seeking abortions out of state.
Much of the volume, she said, has been directed to the organization’s Oklahoma clinic. But overflow patients are coming to Wichita.
“When people are in need of things and they feel hopeless, they’ll do things to get those done,” she said.
Abortion opponents pointed to Trust Women’s messaging last week — encouraging Texas women to come to Kansas — as a foreboding sign.
Sen. Kellie Warren, a Leawood Republican running for Attorney General, accused abortion providers of “marketing” Kansas as a “destination for unlimited abortion.”
“Our state is impacted by the influx of women crossing our state lines to come here. We don’t want to become a regional destination for late term abortions performed up until the moment of birth and even paid for with tax dollars,” Danielle Underwood, a spokeswoman for Kansans for Life, said.
“All of those things are likely to become common practices without the passage of the ‘Value them Both’ amendment.”
Abortion rights activists, however, warn that Kansas’ conservative majority may seek deeper abortion restrictions if given the chance and will not be content with the laws already on the books.
Sweet said Texas’ restrictions serve as a “bellwether” of what’s to come in conservative states like Kansas.
“There’s lots of avenues for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe V. Wade and I think the stakes have never been higher, but that was the case even before Texas,” Sweet said.
Since lawmakers in Tennessee passed a similar constitutional amendment in 2014 the state has passed a trigger bill that would ban abortion if allowed by the federal government as well as a law banning abortions after a heartbeat can be detected.
Rep. Stephanie Clayton, an Overland Park Democrat, said she is concerned Kansas lawmakers will immediately pursue a Texas copycat bill if the amendment is passed.
“This has never been about making women safe; it has always been about creating second-class citizens by stripping people of their constitutional rights and criminalizing freedom,” she said.
McClatchy DC’s Bryan Lowry contributed to this report.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Will Kansas pursue Texas-style abortion restrictions? Here’s what stands in the way.."
