Abortion flap grows as county muzzles Lacey Cruse on Value Them Both | Commentary
.JPG "Sedgwick County Commissioner Lacey Cruse is objecting to this e-newsletter, which was sent out by county staff in her name without her consent, and includes an explanation of the Value Them Both amendment she disagrees with.")
I seldom write about the same issue twice in a row, but in this case Sedgwick County government leaves me little choice.
On Thursday, I wrote about a political ambush directed at Commissioner Lacey Cruse by some of her fellow commissioners and two state legislators at Wednesday’s meeting.
It’s gotten worse.
Following the meeting, county staff sent out a newsletter to Cruse’s constituents, with her name and picture on it, above a county-approved statement on the anti-abortion Value Them Both Amendment.
The statement does not reflect the views of Commissioner Cruse. But when she asked to put out another newsletter that does, she was denied by county staff.
“Strategic communications staff are not able to put this newsletter out, as you have requested, as we believe this goes against what the commission voted on,” said an e-mail to Cruse from Assistant County Manager Tania Cole.
Yes, you read that right.
Cruse is being censored by other commissioners. And county staff is publishing those commissioners’ views under Cruse’s byline.
Cruse would like you to know she’s a grown woman and can speak for herself, thank you very much.
This issue arose after the monthly commission e-newsletters were sent out last week. Commissioners Jim Howell and David Dennis, who support Value Them Both, questioned Cruse’s analysis of the amendment in her newsletter.
They asked County Counselor Mike Pepoon for a legal opinion and his staff contacted the state Governmental Ethics Commission, verifying that Cruse didn’t violate any ethics rules. But that didn’t stop the commissioners and their legislative allies from trying to cancel Cruse.
Here’s the statement at issue from her original newsletter: “This constitutional amendment would eliminate secure and safe abortions in Kansas.”
Technically, it’s questionable, because the amendment itself only attempts to revoke a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and exempt abortion laws from being reviewed by the state Supreme Court for constitutionality.
After being challenged, Cruse agreed to change her statement to: “This amendment could, and probably will, eliminate secure and safe abortions in Kansas.”
She’s not wrong. The Legislature is dominated by pro-life Republicans who’ve spent their entire political lives fighting to ban abortions.
The county-approved language is cut-and-pasted from a statement for voters written by those same legislators. And it has its own clear bias.
For example, it says the amendment “would reserve to the people of Kansas, through their elected state legislators, the right to pass laws to regulate abortion, including, but not limited to, in circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or when necessary to save the life of the mother.”
While that might imply that those exceptions would be allowed, it doesn’t actually say that — only that the Legislature might do it.
Cruse called it “a deceptive practice” by the Legislature and “a big game of confusion designed to mislead people.”
Again, she’s not wrong.
All this underscores a big problem with how the state informs citizens of what they’re voting on.
Supporters of an amendment get to write both what a “yes” vote and a “no” vote means — a huge advantage.
It doesn’t have to be this way and it isn’t in a lot of places. In California, for example, voters get a pamphlet with arguments for and against ballot measures. The “yes” side is written by supporters and the “no” side is written by opponents.
Ordinarily, this would be the part of the column where I would urge the Kansas Legislature to do something similar when it puts an amendment on your ballot.
But why bother?
Two-thirds of lawmakers already voted to expand their own power and weaken the courts. And they’re not above tilting an election in their direction to get that.
Keep that in mind when you vote on Aug. 2.
This story was originally published July 9, 2022 at 10:47 AM.
