By Dave Andrusko
It was no doubt a platinum 7 days for abortion proponents. Yesterday, by one vote—one—the Kansas House failed to override the veto of Gov. Laura Kelly of the Abortion Pill Reversal Information Act. We need to remember that two-thirds is a lot of votes to get.
This victory for the Abortion Industry followed by just six days the decision by the state Supreme Court that, lo and behold, unbeknownst to anyone for a 170 years, there is a “right” to abortion in the Kansas Constitution.
This 6-1 decision was a two-fer for pro-abortionists.
Not only did the court give pro-abortionists a cudgel to go after any and all pro-life legislation, the justices gutted the Kansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion act. Pro-abortionists gleefully anticipated using the decision to go after dismemberment laws in other states.
The lawsuit, by the way, was brought by Herbert Hodes and Traci Nauser, presumably (and hopefully) the only father/daughter abortion duo.
Kansans for Life issued a very thoughtful press release. Let me quote the comments of Mary Kay Culp, executive director:
The failure of the House to override Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of SB 67, the Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) Notification bill, is a tragedy for women and their unborn babies.
Despite the fact that the APR Notification bill did not become law, the practice of abortion reversal itself will continue in the state of Kansas where there are at least 15 providers. The travesty is that now many women won’t find out about it in time to save their babies. …
We do very much appreciate the 83 state representatives who voted to override the governor’s veto and the 27 state senators who did the same.
Today’s vote does not affect the timing of Kansans for Life’s plan to amend the state’s constitution. We have always said that we plan to act very strategically and take the time necessary to guarantee success, and we will be making announcements on that vitally important subject as warranted.
Amend the Constitution, Culp said, “to make it crystal that it does not contain a ‘right to abortion’ in any way, shape or form.”
Finally, Jake LaTurner, the Kansas Treasurer and former state Senator, provided a thoughtful response in a guest column that was first published yesterday: “We must not give up on protecting life.”
This is one of the darkest days in our state’s history. What I can recall are the days when as a State Senator my fellow legislators and I passed bill after bill protecting both women and their unborn child’s right to life.
In 2013 we passed a bill banning the practice of sex-selective abortion. In 2016 we passed a common sense measure that required abortionists to provide women with information about the procedure that Planned Parenthood seeks to hide. And on April 7, 2015 we celebrated with Kansans across the state over the signing of the bill successfully outlawing the barbaric practice of tearing apart a child in utero, commonly referred to as dismemberment abortion.
These laws successfully saved the lives of countless babies in Kansas, and I shudder to think of what will happen to so many innocent lives who will no longer have protection under the law. The Kansas Supreme Court has abandoned these unborn children, leaving them vulnerable to the unregulated abortion industry and those who would take away their chance to live.
I truly believe a society should be judged by how it treats the most vulnerable amongst it. Women in crisis and their innocent, unborn children truly are among our most vulnerable. I will never stop fighting for them. I encourage all Kansans to join with me first in praying for the innocent victims of this cruel court ruling, and then in getting back to work taking our state back from these liberalists who do not represent the will of Kansans.