Kansas abortion opponents want veto overrides and to protect GOP supermajorities in 2024

Abortion opponents are looking to override vetoes and protect the supermajorities in the Kansas Legislature in 2024.

While the anti-abortion movement saw a major victory in 2022 with the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion opponents in Kansas were stymied when voters rejected the Value Them Both Amendment, which would have stripped abortion protections from the Kansas Constitution.

As several hundred people took to the steps of the Statehouse for Wednesday's March and Rally for Life, Kansans for Life outlined their post-Roe, post-Value Them Both legislative priorities.

"While the Kansas Supreme Court's extreme ruling in Hodes back in 2019 does limit our legislative efforts to protect women and babies from the profit-driven abortion industry, our compassion and care for them has no boundaries," said Jeanne Gawdun, a KFL lobbyist. "So the focus of the pro-life legislative agenda is on these life-affirming proposals that protect the safety of pregnant women, highlight the humanity of the preborn child and provide aid for women who choose life for their babies."

That agenda includes various tax benefits, increased funding for anti-abortion counseling centers, prior screening and penalties for coerced abortions, mandatory ultrasounds and revamped reporting. One piece would provide for child support starting at conception, while another would provide an income tax exemption for a pregnant parent whose fetus has a detectable heartbeat.

"Last year, after the Value Them Both lost, a lot of people wondered what we were going to do, where we were going to go from there," said House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita.

The answer, he said, was House and Senate GOP leadership working together on last session's so-called born alive law, a new law on medication abortions, providing taxpayer funding for anti-abortion counseling centers and opposing taxpayer funding for abortion.

"That was our charge last year, and we did that," Hawkins said. "We actually had four pro-life bills that we worked on, and we passed three of them with a veto override. This governor is going to veto every single what she perceives as a pro-life bill. She's going to veto every one of them. So this year, you're going to see more from us, and you'll see more overrides, because that's what it's going to take."

The new law mandating providers tell patients that the abortion pill is reversible has since been blocked, at least for now, by the courts. That temporary injunction also blocks older abortion restrictions in the state's informed consent statutes.

"That's the tragedy of that Hodes decision," said Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, referring to the 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling establishing a state constitutional right to an abortion. "Now, every even reasonable protection is somehow presumptively unconstitutional."

"We're in a unique position in the country that we have that court decision that we're trying to work through," he added.

More: Here's why a Kansas Republican sponsored an abortion ban bill knowing it won't become law

This year's efforts will likely require the Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate to work together.

"Praise God that we have so many," Gawdun said, naming off lawmakers. "It's due to all of you electing pro-life legislators that we're able to even pass pro-life laws." She added that "it makes my job as a lobbyist easier to have so many great pro-life legislators to work with."

In addition to 2024 legislative efforts, it is also an election year. Democrats, including Gov. Laura Kelly, have already stated their goal is to break the Republican supermajorities.

"We have a very critical election coming up," Gawdun said. "Right now, we are so blessed to have a supermajority of pro-life legislators in both chambers, and we will need that with two more years of Gov. Kelly, the most pro-abortion governor in the state's history. We expect more vetoes of our legislation. So come this fall, we're going to need everybody to get involved in the campaigns for these pro-life legislators so they can come back and work again to protect women and babies."

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansans for Life outlines new anti-abortion legislative priorities