TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is requiring abortion providers to share new patient information with the state and increasing funding for anti-abortion centers, while in Louisiana bills to loosen its restrictive ban face an uphill battle, thanks to Republican supermajorities in both. Legislatures.
Democratic lawmakers in Louisiana are pushing bills to add exceptions, including in cases of rape and incest, to the almost total ban on abortion in the state. A GOP-dominated House committee began reviewing those measures on Tuesday, but similar proposals failed last year.
Meanwhile, in Kansas, the GOP-controlled Legislature on Monday nullified all four of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s votes. vetoes of measures wanted by anti-abortion groups. Starting July 1, abortion providers should ask patients why they are terminating the pregnancy and reporting the responses to the state, and will it be a specific crime coerce someone to have an abortion.
Kansas will also offer direct aid to anti-abortion centers and tax incentives for them and their donors. The goal of anti-abortion centers is to dissuade people from having abortions while also offering supplies, classes and other services.
Anti-abortion groups still exert strong influence over Republicans in U.S. statehouses, even after votes on ballot initiatives in several states demonstrated public support for abortion rights following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Dobbs decision in 2022 – with the first in Kansas in August 2022.
“We haven’t resolved this,” Kansas Senate Democratic leader Dinah Sykes said Tuesday. “Those people who showed up to vote and who didn’t vote before need to show up in November to vote.”
The two states, separated by almost 700 kilometers, have dramatically different abortion laws due to their superior courts. In August 2022, just months after Dobbs, the Louisiana Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to that state’s near-total abortion ban, allowing the ban to go into effect. This happened 10 days after Kansas voters decisively asserted their position on a 2019 state Supreme Court decision that the state constitution protects the right to abortion.
Kansas does not ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy. Kelly is a strong supporter of abortion rights and has consistently vetoed abortion measures from the GOP-controlled Legislature.
She is expected to veto a fifth measure requested by abortion opponents, a bill that aims to ensure that judges order that child support payments be applied to fetuses so that the mother’s pregnancy expenses are covered. It would be similar to a Georgia law.
Critics believe the Kansas child support measure advances the long-standing goal of the anti-abortion movement to give embryos and fetuses legal and constitutional protections on par with those of the people who transport them. There are dozens of proposals in at least 15 states aimed at promoting fetal rights, although most have not advanced, according to an Associated Press analysis earlier this year using account monitoring software Plural.
“If we say fetuses now have legal rights, that will affect a lot of other things,” said state Sen. Ethan Corson, a Democrat from the Kansas City area, before the measure passed last week.
But Kansas had a law in force since 2007 that allows people to face separate charges for what it considers crimes against fetuses, and a 2013 state law states that “unborn children have interests in life, health and well-being,” although it is not applied as a limit to abortion.
The child support bill would not change state policy on the legal status of fetuses, said Kansas Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Kellie Warren, a Kansas City-area Republican.
“The real impact of this bill is to help women,” she said.
Abortion opponents also touted the other measures as helping pregnant women and girls, in part by collecting better data on abortion so lawmakers can set clearer policies.
One measure continues to provide $2 million a year in direct aid to anti-abortion centers that provide free supplies and services. Another exempts them from paying the state’s 6.5% sales tax on what they buy and gives their donors a state income tax credit.
Kansans for Life, the state’s most influential anti-abortion group, said in a statement Monday that the measures “seek to meet Kansans where they are and save as many lives as possible.”
Meanwhile, many Republicans reject the argument that the August 2022 vote means Kansas voters expect lawmakers to stop regulating abortion.
“I think most Kansans would agree that we wanted certain safeguards,” said Republican state Sen. Renee Erickson of Wichita.
Louisiana’s only exceptions to the abortion ban are when there is a substantial risk of death or disability to the patient in continuing the pregnancy and when the fetus has a fatal abnormality that makes the pregnancy “medically futile.”
Earlier this year, lawmakers rejected an attempt to let voters decide whether abortion should be legal in Louisiana. The legislation proposed an amendment to the Louisiana Constitution to enshrine women’s reproductive rights, including access to birth control, abortion and infertility treatments.
Public opinion polls across the country and some in Louisiana, as reported by The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocatediscovered that majority oppose more restrictive bans.
During the Louisiana House committee’s first review Tuesday of bills adding new exceptions, Democrats shed tears and raised their voices to plead for exceptions to the current law for rape and incest.
Democratic state Rep. Alonzo Knox of New Orleans questioned why girls “who were violated in the most incomprehensible way” should be forced to give birth and be repeatedly traumatized by the experience.
“Furthermore, she gives birth to a child that she has no knowledge or education on how to care for,” he added.
The commission expects to take a vote next week. Sponsoring state Rep. Delisha Boyd, another New Orleans Democrat, said she will try to meet with Republican lawmakers and GOP Gov. Jeff Landry to see if she can amend the bill to increase its chances of passage.
Landry, elected last year, replaced term-limited Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who supported some abortion restrictions but strongly supported some exceptions.
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Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
