by Joe Bollig
joe.bollig@theleaven.org
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Two more state pro-life laws protecting women and unborn children have come tumbling down — to little surprise.
In its July 5 decisions in Hodes v. Kobach and Hodes v. Stanek, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled 5-1 to block the state from enforcing two laws that regulated the abortion industry in Kansas.
“Our Kansas Supreme Court just knocked down two of the state’s most common-sense laws regulating the abortion industry,” said Danielle Underwood, director of communications for Kansans for Life.
“The first (Hodes v. Kobach) was the restriction of live dismemberment abortions, one of the cruelest and most painful abortion methods. The second (Hodes v. Stanek) was our state’s clinic sanitation and safety standards law, which included inspections and licensure,” she continued.
Votes have consequences
These recent rulings are direct consequences of the defeat of the “Value Them Both” amendment vote on Aug. 2, 2022, to amend the state’s constitution.
Pro-life advocates at the time predicted dire consequences if “Value Them Both” failed.
“It’s painful to say, ‘We told you so’ to the Kansas voters who were misled by the abortion industry’s assurances that it would still be heavily regulated in our state if voters rejected the amendment,” said Underwood.
“Value Them Both” would have nullified a 2019 Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt ruling in which the Kansas Supreme Court found an almost unlimited “right to abortion” in the 1859 Kansas Constitution.
In its July rulings, the court upheld its 2019 decision, which caused all abortion-related laws passed by the state Legislature to be presumed unconstitutional.
By imposing a new, higher standard of judicial review to laws regulating the abortion industry in Kansas, the court erected an almost insurmountable barrier to passing new laws. Additionally, it has put in jeopardy all existing pro-life laws, including parental consent protections and those prohibiting taxpayer funding of abortions.
“Because of the extreme 2019 Hodes ruling by the court, we are finding that there is little the state can do to regulate the abortion industry that will be upheld by the courts in Kansas,” said Jeanne Gawdun, director of government relations for Kansans for Life.
Expected and disappointing
The July 5 court rulings were expected but are nonetheless disappointing, said Chuck Weber, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, the public policy advocate for the Catholic bishops of Kansas.
“It is a sad fact that many Kansans — including many Catholics — believed the blatant lies of the abortion industry and the secular media,” said Weber. “Abortion in Kansas is most certainly not ‘safe and heavily regulated.’ In fact, the abortion industry is slowly but surely strip mining laws protecting the health of women.”
During the run-up to the Aug. 2, 2022, vote on the “Value Them Both” amendment, pro-life advocates predicted that a “no” vote would result in an increase of abortions in Kansas and more women would travel to Kansas for abortions, said Gawdun.
Both have come true.
The total number of induced abortions in Kansas has risen from 6,916 in 2019 to 12,318 in 2022, according to “Abortions in Kansas: 2022 Preliminary Report.” That same report noted that abortions by out-of-state residents rose from 3,373 in 2019 to 8,475 in 2022.
Those numbers are probably higher, according to Kansans for Life.
The cost of lies
Abortion industry advocates opposed to “Value Them Both” also made false and misleading claims in 2022 that the amendment was a total abortion ban and would prevent women with life-threatening pregnancies from obtaining medical care — such as in the case of miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies.
“They were scaring women,” said Gawdun.
Among the biggest lies was that “Value Them Both” was unneeded because of existing laws regulating the abortion industry, she said. They made this claim even while working through the courts to use the 2019 court ruling to overturn these very laws.
This deception was noted by Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall, who wrote in his lone dissent in the July 5 rulings that “during the [2022] campaign, however, Kansas was awash with claims that voting ‘no’ on the amendment simply secured a moderate, common-sense, middle-ground status quo.”
Stegall also noted that a “no” vote advocate said if the amendment failed women would be “in the same situation they’re in right now. I mean, we have access to abortion care, but we also have restrictions and reasonable regulations,” the advocate said, and further, “all agree that abortion should be regulated like all other medical procedures.”
In truth, the abortion industry wants to prevent new regulations while removing existing ones.
“But now the game is up,” wrote Stegall. “As savvy campaigners knew from the get-go, legislation would not be needed because no regulation of abortion — none — will be permitted by this court under the far-reaching legal regime we announced in Hodes I [2019].”
What is the way ahead?
The question many pro-life people have been asking since 2022 is: What do we do now?
The answer: A lot of what they were doing before.
“We have to do everything we can to help moms in crisis and their children,” said Gawdun. “Especially after the 2019 ruling, we said we’ve got to do what we can to support — and increase support — for maternity homes and pregnancy resource centers.”
Pro-life Kansans need to increase financial and volunteer support for life-affirming alternatives.
“Kansans need access to better data so we can understand why women have abortions,” said Gawdun, “and what we can do as a state to help women choose life for their babies. This session we succeeded in passing improved abortion reporting standards, but they, too, are being attacked by the abortion industry in the courts.”
Education is vital.
“We have got to educate Kansans about the humanity of the unborn, because the courts have said the preborn child doesn’t matter,” said Gawdun, “[they said it’s] all about personal, bodily autonomy of the women. The unborn child is not a concern of the courts. We’ve got to educate our fellow Kansans that this is a fellow human being, the same as you and I.”
Pro-life Kansans need to know that voting is still important. They need to vote for pro-life office holders in all parts of government.
“We have to elect pro-life legislators for a super majority in both chambers to override the governor’s vetoes of pro-life legislation,” she said. “We’ve got to have [legislative] votes to keep funding pregnancy resource centers.”
