Kansas again spends taxpayer money on anti-abortion efforts, despite not having reports

Kansas will again spend taxpayer money on anti-abortion efforts, despite lawmakers and the state treasurer having no formal status reports on how last year's appropriation has been used.

The Republican-led Legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's line-item veto of $2 million to a "pregnancy compassion awareness program." The money supports anti-abortion counseling centers, which are also known as pregnancy resource centers and crisis pregnancy centers.

The $2 million in the state budget for next fiscal year builds on $2 million in the current fiscal year for the Kansas Pregnancy Care Network, which subcontracts with anti-abortion counseling centers across the state.

Meanwhile, those organizations are in line for preferential tax treatment with another veto override of House Bill 2465. That legislation includes up to $10 million in income tax credits to incentivize private donations, plus a sales tax exemption for purchases made by those organizations.

What is the Kansas Alternatives to Abortion Program?

The Republican-led Legislature created the Alternatives to Abortion Program, plus a related public awareness program, by overriding a line-item veto in 2023. That appropriated $2 million for fiscal year 2024, which ends June 30.

Lawmakers overrode a veto again in 2024, appropriating $2 million to continue the program in fiscal year 2025, which starts July 1.

"With this override of the Governor's veto of the Pregnancy Compassion Awareness program, we're enabling this program to continue to help lower-income women across our state continue to receive important pre and postnatal care, multiple types of counseling, infant-care items, and other essential resources they might not otherwise be able to afford," the House GOP leadership said in a statement after the vote.

Lawmakers disagreement: What did Kansas voters mean when they rejected anti-abortion amendment?

State law says the program is intended to "enhance and increase resources that promote childbirth instead of abortion to women facing unplanned pregnancies and to offer a full range of services, including pregnancy support centers, adoption assistance, and maternity homes."

Legally, recipients of the state funding cannot "perform, induce, assist in the performing or inducing of or refer for abortions."

State Treasurer Steven Johnson's office is tasked with overseeing the contract, and the budget in Senate Bill 28 requires the funding go to the existing contract with the Kansas Pregnancy Care Network. The network subcontracts with existing counseling centers and other organizations, of which there are more than 50 statewide.

"I continue to believe that overseeing a state pregnancy crisis center and maternity home program is not an appropriate role for the Office of State Treasurer," Kelly said in her veto message. "This proviso continues a program to provide taxpayer funding for largely unregulated pregnancy resource centers. These entities are not medical centers and do not promote evidence-based methods to prevent unplanned pregnancies."

Lawmakers funded the program without having status reports

When lawmakers first created the program in 2023, they had a requirement that the contractor submit a report — but not until the end of the fiscal year, meaning it was not available when legislators considered whether to continue the funding another year.

In addition to the fiscal year report to the Legislature, the request for proposals said the contractor "must report on all program measurables ... to the Treasurer on a quarterly basis throughout the year." The treasurer could make the quarterly payments to the contractor contingent upon receiving those status reports. Those reporting requirements were incorporated into the contract with Kansas Pregnancy Care Network.

No such status reports exist, or at least not as of March 14.

The Topeka Capital-Journal filed Kansas Open Records Act requests in November and March for any status reports from the contractor, as well as any requests from Johnson's office that the Kansas Pregnancy Care Network submit a status report.

In both November and March, an attorney at the State Treasurer's Office responded that "we did not identify any documents responsive to your request for records."

"We don't have status reports," Johnson told The Capital-Journal in December. "Those will go to the Legislature to assess if they're happy with the performance and seeing what they had wanted from that investment. We hope we at least enable that so that they can get the reports that they want.

"It is fresh. They've only had a few months. We encourage them to be thinking to what reporting they could put together, but it would be hard to come up with in a quarter."

Acknowledging that a status report would be helpful during the budgeting process — "that has to be on everybody's radar, to make sure it works" — Johnson said at the time that he anticipated a report sometime during the legislative session.

"I would expect one during the session," Johnson said. "Whether it's the start or whether it's into March, I'm not sure."

More: Kansas opens bidding to run $2 million abortion alternative fund. Here's what to know

Legislators didn't double the funding as requested

Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, told the House GOP caucus that they were keeping the funding at the current level — as opposed to doubling it — because they didn't have enough information on how the program was working.

"The organization did not get up and running until about November, so they've only got three or four months worth of data, which isn't enough for us to really say yea or nay on the program," Landwehr said April 29 ahead of the override vote. "So we asked for $2 million more to keep it going for one more year, so they can come in with a full year of data to provide.

"We did hear a bill in the Health and Human Services Committee. Because the board would not let their executive director testify on the bill, we decided not to work the bill. Moving forward, we would just run it through appropriations. We want to keep it going for one more year so we find out exactly the resources that they have, what they don't have and what services they're providing for the families."

Landwehr's committee did have a hearing on House Bill 2789 in February, but that bill never advanced further. While she didn't speak in-person, Kansas Pregnancy Care Network executive director Lynn Mowrey did submit written testimony.

Mowrey said the network signed its contract in September, hired staff, then formally launched the program in October. By February, the network had 10 approved subcontracts, had 20 more subcontractors going through the approval process and had ongoing outreach with other potential subcontractors. She said the program had assisted more than 450 Kansas women and their families.

She also pointed to a website with a geographically indexed list of program services in the state, as well as a toll-free phone number. Creation of that website was mandated in the law as part of awareness efforts. The money can also be used to advertise the program, such as TV commercials or highway billboards.

Mowrey didn't provide more detailed data that is required to be in the report at the end of the fiscal year. The law requires data on the following:

• The number of clients.

• The number of clients who participated in case management services.

• The number of case management hours provided to clients.

• The number of clients engaged in educational services or job training and placement activities.

• The number of newborns who were born to program participants.

• The number of such newborns placed for adoption.

• The number of fathers who participated in program services.

• The number of client satisfaction surveys completed.

• Any other information that shows the success of the Contractor's administration of the program.

There don't appear to be any specific financial reporting requirements, though the state treasurer is authorized to fine the contractor "for the intentional or reckless misuse of any funds awarded."

Supporting counseling centers has been part of post-Roe strategy

Supporting anti-abortion counseling centers, which are also known as pregnancy resource centers and crisis pregnancy centers, has been a top priority for anti-abortion legislators and lobbyists the past two years.

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending nearly 50 years of federal legal protection for abortion. But later that year, Kansas voters upheld abortion rights in the state constitution by rejecting the Value Them Both constitutional amendment.

Kelly in her veto message said "the Legislature should listen to Kansans, who, on August 2, 2022, told politicians they should stop inserting themselves in private medical decisions between women and their doctors."

But supporters argue the vote wasn't a referendum on all abortion-related legislation, like the state funding for such centers and a separate bill providing tax benefits for them.

"Although this legislation would have not, in any way, restricted access to abortion, it was a non-starter for the predatory abortion industry, Governor Kelly and her abortion industry allies in the Kansas legislature," Lucrecia Nold, of the Kansas Catholic Conference, said in a statement after Kelly's veto. "It is becoming tragically clear that 'pro-choice' is empty rhetoric, and really means abortion is the one and only preferred option for women seeking authentic choices for their unplanned pregnancy."

The legislation that Landwehr didn't work, HB 2789, would have expanded and renamed the existing Alternatives to Abortion Program. That bill was in line with the Kansans for Life legislative agenda.

"Our statewide membership strongly supports life-affirming options for women who are facing a decision related to abortion," Jeanne Gawdun, of KFL, told the committee in February.

The expansion would have doubled the state funding to $4 million and moved its administration to the Kansas Department for Children and Families while keeping the contracting under the state treasurer. It would have gotten additional funding from imposing new $25 fees on the "In God We Trust" and "Choose Life" specialty license plates, which the Kansas Department of Revenue estimated would raise about $29,000 a year.

There were also provisions for DCF to potentially use federal TANF dollars as supplemental funding for the program.

Opponents argue the counseling centers mislead and misinform people as they try to dissuade them from getting an abortion — an assertion that supporters dispute. One of the Kansas network's leaders, former Republican congressman Tim Huelskamp, was connected to a misleading text message sent to registered Democrats the day before the Value Them Both vote.

Zachary Gingrich-Gaylord, of the Trust Women Foundation, called the funding "a massive subsidy to unregulated anti-abortion centers, putting the resources of Kansas taxpayers behind organizations that masquerade as health care providers, to the detriment of patients and our communities."

Taylor Morton, of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, urged lawmakers not to provide public funding "for explicitly anti-abortion organizations" with "no meaningful government oversight."

She said the organizations "focus on the idea of providing all options, but really only providing one option, and that is carrying a pregnancy to term."

Supporters argue that the counseling centers provide material resources, such as diapers and baby formula, as well as other help to pregnant girls and women who may consider abortion, particularly those worried about the financial burden.

Nold pointed to the example of Mary's Choices in Topeka, which provides material support, pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, counseling by medical professionals, assistance in scheduling obstetrical care, help applying for food assistance, help applying for medical coverage and educational and parenting classes.

"We are called to love thy neighbor, or more commonly, just treat others as we would like to be treated," Nold said. "This is exactly what pregnancy resource centers and maternity homes do. They treat anyone who walks through their door with love, kindness and compassion, the way any of us would want to be treated, especially in a time of need."

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: Kansas lawmakers will spend $2 million on anti-abortion centers