AG Schmidt says Kansas’ vote for abortion rights should be ‘respected going forward’
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the Republican nominee for governor, said Thursday that voters’ landslide rejection of a measure removing abortion rights from the state constitution “has to be respected going forward.”
Schmidt indicated that if elected governor he would not push the Kansas Legislature to again advance an amendment overturning a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that found the state constitution protects abortion access.
“I think Kansans, Kansas voters, went to the polls. They made a decision,” Schmidt told reporters after a campaign event in Overland Park.
Schmidt is locked in a tough election fight with Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who is seeking a second four-year term. Kelly supports abortion rights and opposed the amendment. Kelly told supporters in an email last month that she had “always maintained that a woman’s reproductive healthcare decisions should be between her and her physician.”
Schmidt’s comments, in response to a question, came hours before the Kansas State Board of Canvassers was set to meet in Topeka to certify the results of the Aug. 2 election, which included the amendment vote. Schmidt is a member of the board, along with Kelly and Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab.
The certification comes after anti-abortion activists paid roughly $120,000 for a hand recount of the amendment vote in nine counties, including Johnson and Sedgwick, the state’s largest. The recount changed the results by less than 2/100ths of percentage point — an infinitesimal fraction of the overall vote that included ballots from more than 922,000 Kansans.
On Thursday, Schmidt called Kelly’s views on abortion “extreme,” while signaling that as governor he wouldn’t seek additional restrictions on abortion.
“I think that the focus going forward for the state needs to be on defending those laws already on the books and that’s where my priorities would be,” Schmidt said.
Kansas strictly limits abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy and patients must receive mandatory state-written materials before receiving an abortion. An ultrasound is required. Parental consent is required for minors.
Abortion clinics are also regulated by the state health department. Physicians performing abortions must follow licensing requirements like other medical professionals.
Schmidt’s comments Thursday align with a written statement posted to his campaign website after the vote on the amendment, which voters rejected 41% to 59%. In that statement, Schmidt also said the voters’ decision must be respected and that he would defend existing regulations on abortion.
In the written statement, Schmidt also said he had never supported an abortion ban and supported abortion in cases of rape, incest, the health of the woman and in instances where conditions would make it impossible for a child to survive outside the womb.
This story was originally published September 1, 2022 at 12:09 PM with the headline "AG Schmidt says Kansas’ vote for abortion rights should be ‘respected going forward’."
