Dear editor,
As a lifelong Kansan I do not want our state to have abortions performed for almost any reason. That is where we seem to be going since the Kansas Supreme Court decision in 2019. We are trying to correct that with the Value Them Both (VTB) amendment. The anti-amendment ads want you to vote against VTB since they say it will prevent treatment for “life of the mother” medical procedures for miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, etc. This was not the case before 2019. While these procedures may medically be called an abortion, the legislature in the past has passed a law that specifically defined them as “not abortion.” This and “informed consent,” parental notification, and clinic health and safety standards as well as clinic inspections cannot be enforced even though statutes for them have existed for years. The parts of these laws that have been tested in court have been declared unenforceable because of the 2019 decision.
So what has the 2019 decision actually done? Kansas has become the “California” of the Midwest. The number of abortions has exploded here since 2019. And slightly less than half are for out-of-state women. Will this continue to grow? Absolutely! Who says so? The Guttmacher Institute, which is a widely known pro-abortion organization says so. And add the Kansas City Star. Both have said that Kansas will see an increase of more than 1,000% if Value Them Both does not pass.
How bad can it get? In May the California State Assembly passed bill AB2223 and sent it to their Senate. The law, if passed, would remove all legal penalties from anyone violating any abortion health and safety standard when performing an abortion on a woman through all nine months of pregnancy and for 30 more days if the baby dies from a pregnancy-related cause. So if a baby in the womb survives a miscarriage and requires care to survive, he/she can be let to die and nothing can be done. Could this happen here without Value Them Both? The mother and son or daughter created in the womb are human beings and need protection as the Kansas Legislature has done in the past.
