Kansas’ GOP senators split on whether to support federal 15-week abortion ban

Kansas Republican Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall are divided on whether to support federal legislation that would implement a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks that was introduced just weeks after their state strongly voted to affirm abortion rights.

The divide between the two Kansas senators echoes a larger schism in the Republican Party over how to handle abortion rights in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Marshall, an OB/GYN, supports a bill introduced Tuesday by South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham that would restrict abortion nationally after 15 weeks, superseding Kansas’ current law, which prohibits the procedure after 22 weeks.

“The U.S. keeps horrific company on abortion without any restrictions or conditions after 15 weeks — such as North Korea, Columbia, and China,” Marshall said. “Additionally, 47 out of 50 European nations limit elective abortion prior to 15 weeks gestation. For these reasons, I am supportive of Senator Lindsey Graham’s legislation.”

The Kansas Supreme Court found a right to an abortion in the state constitution in 2019, a ruling that was upheld last month when Kansans voted 59 % to 41 % to reject an anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution.

Moran, who is up for reelection this year, pointed out that Graham’s bill has no chance of passage in a Democratic-controlled Congress and said abortion restrictions are up to the states after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling overturning a federal right to an abortion in June.

“With an equally divided Senate, changes will not be made at the federal level, and therefore this issue can only be resolved at the state level,” Moran said in a statement.

The differences between the two senators echoes a larger division within the Republican Party.

Democrats, energized on abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a constitutional right to an abortion, have seized on restrictive policies

On Tuesday, when most Republican senators were attempting to focus on a report that inflation is not letting up, Graham’s bill thrust a federal abortion ban into a complicated conversation about abortion rights.

In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling, conservative restrictions on abortion rights are no longer symbolic measures proposed by lawmakers. In Missouri, the supreme court’s decision triggered one of the country’s strictest abortion restrictions, which bans the procedure without exceptions for rape and incest.

Graham’s legislation would leave those policies in place, while forcing states with more lenient restrictions to adopt a 15 week ban. It ran counter to the common Republican response that the issue should be left to the states, which was the result of the Supreme Court’s decision in June.

After a draft of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning a constitutional right to an abortion was leaked in May, Marshall said he supported the decision and wanted the issue to be decided by the states, rather than “unelected judges.”

But that was before Kansans roundly rejected a measure that would have eliminated the right to an abortion from the state constitution, disrupting a concerted effort by the anti-abortion movement to give the Republican-controlled legislature more freedom to restrict abortion rights in the state.

Democrats have pointed to the Kansas vote, as well as special elections where Democrats have outperformed expectations, as a sign that abortion rights is a galvanizing issue for voters and will help them avoid the typical electoral losses that the president’s party faces in a mid-term election.

“Just last month, Kansas voters rejected an attempt to take away their right to abortion,” said Kourtney Vincent-Woodbury, who works for Planned Parenthood Great Plains. “Kansans know that what happens at the ballot box matters, and they’re not going to let anti-abortion politicians get away without a fight in November.”

At the Capitol Tuesday, Republican leaders appeared more in line with Moran than Marshall. While previous iterations of his legislation — a 20 week ban — had 45 cosponsors including all of Kansas and Missouri’s senators, several Republican members said Tuesday that the issue should be left to the states, instead of supporting federal legislation.

“I think most of the members of my conference prefer that this be dealt with at the state level,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.