Press Release

Feb. 1, 2012 - Updated 8pm CST

Contact Legislative Director, Kathy Ostrowski: 785.250.4502

Kansans for Life announces support for 3 pro-life bills and 1 resolution for the 2012 Kansas legislature session

Kansans for Life supports three new pro-life bills for the 2012 Kansas legislative session in Topeka: HB 2523, HB 2579 and HB 2598.  We especially applaud House Judiciary Chair, Lance Kinzer (R-Olathe), and House Federal-State Affairs Chair, Steve Brunk (R-Wichita), for their efforts in developing these life-protecting bills. Bill hearings in these committees are yet to be announced. 

KFL also supports a resolution for both chambers to approve, being prepared by Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook (R-Shawnee), which applauds the work of pregnancy resource centers in Kansas.

The new bills are:

HB 2523, the Healthcare Rights of Conscience Act, strengthens protections for healthcare facilities and personnel from the mandatory provision of abortion procedures and devices/drugs that are reasonably believed to act as abortifacients.

HB 2579, the Life Begins at Conception Act, adopts the U.S. Supreme Court affirmation (1989 Missouri preamble/Webster ruling) of the state’s right to promote childbirth through policy-making and the allocation of resources. This is legislation that will concretely save lives, especially when fleshed out by legislative measures like the Pro-Life Protections Act (below).

HB 2579 affirms that the life of each human being begins at conception and that the state will protect the interests in the life, health, and well-being of the unborn, subject only to the Constitution of the United States, and decisional interpretations thereof by the United States Supreme Court and specific provisions to the contrary in the statutes and constitution of Kansas.

On the other hand, the currently drafted “Personhood” resolution would not criminalize abortion and, moreover, would quickly be enjoined and trumped under “federal Supremacy” that enforces the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe regime. In the estimation of most legal scholars, until the election of a pro-life president capable of shifting the abortion balance on that Court, those justices are not willing to abolish abortion, were a Personhood state declaration be sent to them. Additionally, the Personhood declaration presents an unfortunate legal opportunity for our liberal state high court to further entrench abortion into the Kansas Constitution.

HB 2598, the Pro-Life Protections Act, restricts state funds from benefitting abortion, in order to promote childbirth, as court rulings have repeatedly upheld is the state’s right. The bill also secures civil litigation rights for the unborn, and insures the promotion of medically accurate information in public schools and in Kansas’ abortion informed consent (Woman’s Right to Know) materials.

This bill prohibits:

•         state funding for abortion, including payment through state employee insurance policies;

•         tax credits for individual abortions and for abortion businesses;

•         discrimination by state agencies against individuals or entities that refuse to provide, pay for, or refer for abortion;

•         abortions sought because of the unborn child’s gender;

•         public school districts from contracting with abortion providers for any services, including course materials for sex ed classes;

•         civil lawsuits for wrongful birth or wrongful life (such claims have been made on “behalf” of disabled children, that they should have been aborted).

This bill adds these protections:

•         puts improved health agency language from the mandatory “Woman’s Right to Know” materials into statute, and adds stronger warnings about breast cancer and prematurity risks from abortion;

•         updates heart monitor/sonogram option to mandate Doppler fetal monitor at 10 weeks gestation (8 weeks from conception) to make heart beat audible for mother;

•         clarifies maternal rights and expands warnings about coercion on the sign already required to be conspicuously posted inside abortion clinics;

•         harmonizes technical definitions in the post-viability abortion statute with those enacted in the newer pain-capable statute;

•         expands civil lawsuits for wrongful death of unborn to be applicable from conception, not just after viability.


NOTE:  The Kansas legislative session in Topeka began in early January and will go through May. This Voter Voice system allows us to know which state respresentative and state senate district you live in so we can keep you properly informed of when contact with your legislators is needed. Thank you for being a KFL "Voter Voice" member and be sure to forward this message to other Kansans who might join us! (See below)