Cash, faith, politics at Mass: How the Catholic Church is fighting abortion rights in Kansas

Midway through every Catholic Mass — after the Bible readings but before Communion — parishioners are led through intentions, call and response prayers focused on specific needs in the community, nation and world.

The prayers differ by church and by week as congregants are asked to pray for the sick, for peace, for victims in a recent tragedy, newly-married couples or the recently deceased.

In recent weeks, an additional prayer has been used at Ascension Catholic Church in Overland Park. It speaks of political victory and a change to Kansas’ foundational governing document.

“For a renewed respect for human life at all stages and that the upcoming referendum on the Value Them Both amendment will pass so that Kansans will be protected from the unfettered quest of the abortion industry, Lord hear our prayer.”

Congregants responded “Let us pray to the Lord.”

Ascension, like many Catholic churches across Kansas, has taken an active role advocating within its parish for the Aug. 2 passage of an amendment that would remove the right to abortion from the Kansas constitution.

That vote, which comes after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Friday overturning Roe v. Wade, puts Kansas in the spotlight. The state, long a central battleground on the issue, will be the first in the county to hold a referendum on abortion rights in the post-Roe landscape.

The amendment seeks to overturn a 2019 state supreme court ruling that found a right to an abortion in the state constitution. If passed, it would allow state lawmakers to restrict abortion, even banning the procedure completely, at a time when Kansas is becoming a major access point for the procedure in the Midwest.

The Catholic Church has taken an outsized role in the amendment campaign. The tax-exempt status of churches usually bars direct involvement in political campaigning. However, issue-based ballot initiatives are the exception to this rule.

As a result, the “vote yes” campaign has capitalized on the power of the church — its consistent access to and sway over potential voters in the pews, strict hierarchical organization, and tax-exempt donations — to build support and enthusiasm in the lead-up to one of the most pivotal votes on reproductive rights in the nation.

Some supporters of abortion rights say the church’s advocacy and organizing in this case crosses a line. While the church may be within the letter of the law, they say it is flouting the spirit of separation of church and state.

“I think there should be a separation of church and state in all things and churches, which are nonprofit organizations and receive federal funds, interfering in political elections is pretty problematic,” said state Rep. Lindsay Vaughn, an Overland Park Democrat and former Catholic.

At a “vote no” rally in Lawrence earlier this month the crowd took aim at the church, chanting: “Keep your rosaries off our ovaries.”

And the church’s advocacy has proved divisive among some Catholics. Polling shows Catholic Americans are split on the issue.

“No matter what the bishops – or the court – say, our faith is clear: abortion is a human right,” Catholics for Choice President Jamie L. Manson said in the statement following the Supreme Court ruling Friday.

“This ruling gives right-wing leaders unfettered license to codify fringe religious beliefs into civil law.”

But religious speech is protected under the First Amendment and Debra Niesen, consultant for pro-life ministries for the Archdiocese in Kansas City in Kansas, said advocating for the unborn, including in public policy, is central to the Catholic faith.

“The value and defense of all human life is really foundational to our religious belief, it always has been and it always will be,” Niesen said. “We believe that all other rights extend from the right to life.”

Catholic teaching says that life begins at conception and views abortion as a grave moral wrong.

In executing the “vote yes” campaign, the church operates hand-in-hand with the broader Value Them Both Coalition. This primary organizing group is made up of Kansans for Life, Kansas Family Voice — a conservative Protestant policy group — and the Kansas Catholic Conference, the church’s public policy arm.

The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, leading more than 100 parishes, has engaged directly with the coalition through its Pro-Life Ministries office, sending speakers into parishes across the eastern part of state and distributing messaging and campaign materials through individual churches and archdiocese-wide communications and events.

The head of the archdiocese, Archbishop Joseph Fred Naumann, has been a national leader on anti-abortion issues for years. From 2018 through 2021, he chaired the U.S. Conference of Bishops’ Pro Life Activities Committee, which led efforts to deny communion to President Joe Biden and other Catholic advocates for abortion rights.

Although churches of all denominations have been involved in the effort, the Catholic church has had a major financial impact with the KCK and Wichita dioceses’ providing a combined $750,000 to the Value Them Both Association last year.

On the ground, churches have helped distribute purple Value Them Both branded signs and bumper stickers. Postcards placed in the pews at Ascension encouraged congregants to sign up to phone bank, campaign door to door or donate money.

Before and after the campaign’s “Week of Action” in early June, churches across the area had voter registration booths outside Sunday Mass.

For the most part, religious leaders have closely adhered to the careful messaging crafted by Value Them Both Association for use ahead of the August vote.

The message focuses on preserving existing laws regulating abortion in Kansas and fear that Kansas could become a “destination state for late term abortion.” It carefully avoids discussion of abortion bans or other new restrictions.

When The Star reached out to priests at individual churches, they deferred to the KCK archdiocese. The other three dioceses in the state — Dodge City, Salina and Wichita — referred The Star to the Value Them Both Association on interview requests.

The archdiocese repeatedly denied The Star’s requests for an interview with Naumann.

But at a tailgate and rosary rally organized by the KCK archdiocese in Overland Park early this month Naumann and attendees spoke of something broader than existing restrictions — a world without abortion.

Naumann addressed the crowd wearing his bishop’s regalia — a large cross around his neck and a flowing gold and white striped cloak.

“What it appears the Supreme Court may do is not going to ban abortion but what it will do is bring us back to where we were in 1973,” Naumann said.

“It was up to each state to set its public policy and there were some differences of a few states at that time. Most states did protect mothers and the unborn from the tragedy of abortion.”

Through the amendment, Naumann said, Kansans would “take back our right” to decide abortion policy.

“We pray tonight not just for victory on August 2 at the ballot box … but what we really pray for a change and a victory our culture and our society where abortion will become unthinkable,” he said while leading prayer.

Church campaign spending

In a speech after Mass at Ascension last month, Niesen, the KCK archdiocese’s consultant for “pro-life ministries,” assured congregants that, in advocating for the amendment, the church would not risk its tax-exempt status.

“It’s also important to understand that the church does have the right to advocate for this amendment,” Niesen said. “The church is engaging in an issue that is foundational and important to our faith.”

Typically the churches’ tax exempt status prevents them from engaging in political campaigns — they’re barred from direct contributions to candidates and political parties and from campaigning on their behalf.

But issue-based ballot initiatives, like the amendment fight, are the exception.

More than half the money the Value Them Both PAC raised last year came from churches. The Kansas City, Kansas, diocese gave $500,000, the Wichita Diocese gave $250,000. The Ascension Catholic Church donated $10,600.

One of the largest donations to the campaign came from out of state with the Oklahoma City Diocese providing $10,000.

The donation from the KCK diocese alone exceeds the entire sum of money the main “vote no” campaign, Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, brought in in 2021 — $461,310

Donations directly from churches, including Catholic and other denominations, accounted for more than 60% of the money brought in to the Value Them Both PAC last year — a total of $774,770. An additional $13,955 was donated by the Knights of Columbus at individual Catholic parishes.

Another $385,000, or roughly 31%, came from Kansans for Life. Less than 4% of donations came from individual Kansans.

Data on donations in 2022 won’t become available until late July.

Catholic and Protestant mobilization

Billing itself as the biggest grassroots movement in state history, the Value Them Both PAC explains its campaigning as “church to church, door to door and person to person.”

Catholics make up 18% percent of Kansas’ population, while another 31% identify as Evangelical Protestant, according to the Pew Research Center. It’s unclear how many of those Kansans regularly attend Masses and services.

August ballots are typically lower turnout elections. Getting voters to the polls will be key to a successful campaign. For the “vote yes” groups that will include mobilizing churchgoers.

“Our churches are working together, across denominations in a way we haven’t seen for many years. People of faith realize the extreme importance of protecting Kansas from becoming a permanent destination state for painful, dismemberment abortions,” Lucrecia Nold, public policy specialist at the Kansas Catholic Conference, said in an email.

Dilation and evacuation abortions, referred to by anti-abortion activists as dismemberment abortions, occur at or after 15 weeks gestation. Currently abortions in Kansas are banned at and after 22 weeks. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said that a fetus lacks the “physiological capacity to perceive pain” until 24 weeks.

Brittany Jones, who has organized in Protestant churches in her role as a lobbyist for Kansas Family Voice, said the religious nature of the campaign lends an “energy and passion” beyond what is typical in her work. Jones said she believes 90% of people hearing the “vote yes” message in the pews agree with it once they understand the issue.

“I think that they’re vitally important to making sure that we pass the amendment on August 2 but also get the word out to their friends and their neighbors,” she said.

Jones said she’s worked with nearly 1,000 churches to advocate for the amendment. Some churches, she said, ask for speakers to come speak, some are hosting events and some are showing videos. Unlike Catholic churches, Jones said, Protestant churches are intensely independent, so they have each taken a different tack.

The Catholic Church is an especially effective place for organizing because of its top-down, regional structure.

“The strength of the cleric, the top down hierarchies are absolutely essential to providing an institutional support for the anti-abortion movement that can’t come from other sectors of American Christianity,” said Darren Dochuk, a history professor at Notre Dame who studies the intersection of religion and politics. “At the grassroots level, it has just been in the DNA of the parish operations on a weekly basis.”

And that may create an inherent advantage for “vote yes” organizers, said Vaughn, the lawmaker in Overland Park, who canvassed door to door last weekend for the “vote no” campaign in her district.

“Field work in general takes a lot of organization and community outreach and that is something that the church already has.”

“They say it takes seven contacts in some way or another in order to persuade someone to get out and vote for whatever the issue is. If they go to church seven times between now and then, than they’re fairly guaranteed to ‘vote yes.’”

Kim Biagioli, another volunteer canvassing with the predominant “vote no group” Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, called it a “captive audience.”

Direct engagement through the church has taken many forms.

Messaging with Value Them Both branding — a heart shape formed by a woman holding an infant — is printed weekly in bulletins handed out after Catholic Masses. In KCK, the diocese is encouraging parishes to invite a representative from the campaign to speak to their parishioners and give a pitch on why they should “vote yes”.

Mater Dei in Topeka, a parish positioned across the street from the Kansas Statehouse that is frequented by elected officials, was listed as an address for the Value Them Both PAC in purple postcards seeking volunteers placed in the pews at Ascension.

In the entryway of Ascension, piles of bumper stickers, lawn signs and magnets are available for parishioners to take. The materials proudly advertise a “yes” vote on Aug. 2.

Packets for churches hoping to get involved are available on the Value Them Both website — detailing the legality of church involvement and offering to sell churches packages of campaign materials to hand out.

Catholics are encouraged to sign up for a statewide “rosary crusade.” Weekly and monthly rosaries are held at churches across the state to pray for the passage of the amendment.

“We’re asking our parishioners to first and foremost pray for the successful passage of the amendment,” Niesen said in an interview.

The early June Rosary and Tailgate rally was as much campaign event as it was a worship service.

Kansans for Life and Value Them Both staffers walked through the crowd from 4 to 6 p.m. handing out bumper stickers and delivering their “vote yes” pitch.

Starting around 6 p.m., speakers addressed the crowd about a desire to create a “culture of life” in Kansas. To do so, they said, required the passage of the amendment and every person in attendance voting, volunteering and praying to ensure passage. Volunteer sign up forms were available then and there.

“The harvest is plenty but the laborers are few,” Niesen told the crowd.

Pregnancy resource centers

A special focus has been placed on pregnancy resource centers as a compassionate alternative the church offers to women and families facing unplanned or difficult pregnancies. The centers tend to offer a variety of services including, but not limited to, financial assistance, pregnancy tests and ultrasounds.

They have faced criticism from abortion rights activists for misleading women seeking abortions.

The archdiocese launched a “helping Kansas women” website and TV advertisement focused on these centers. The website provides a map of pregnancy resource centers across the state and video testimonials from women who got help at the centers.

Speaking to a small gathering of parishioners at St. John Paul II parish in Olathe, Niesen encouraged them to keep a list of resource centers with them in case they came across someone in need.

“When people hear and see the church not only defending the lives of the unborn but supporting women and families in need, that’s when hearts and minds are changed,” she said. “We should be able to lead them to help while we, the church, wrap them in love and prayer and support.”

The religious “no” vote

Religion is not synonymous with anti-abortion sentiment and Christianity does not take a monolithic stance on it.

Ashley All, a spokeswoman for “vote no” group Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, said the campaign had worked with Jewish faith leaders and leaders in eight Protestant denominations.

Rev. Jay McKell, a retired Presbyterian pastor from Johnson County, said his faith leads him to advocate for abortion rights, rather than against them.

“There are no biblical texts that prohibit or condemn an abortion,” he said. “Just as I believe scriptures teach us to respect women and to trust them and protect them, I think the constitution, as it is currently written, does that very thing — it says women can make moral decisions about their lives.”

And the issue is deeply divisive for the Catholic faithful. According to a 2019 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, 52% of white Catholics and 41% of Hispanic Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Mary Reynolds, a 68-year-old Overland Park resident, is one of those Catholics. Reynolds became a Catholic because of the church’s social justice teachings during the Vietnam war.

However, she said she believes the church is out of touch with its congregation and crossing a line in its advocacy against legal abortion. She believe the church has driven people away because of its stance on abortion.

“The Catholic church has got to get back to relying on the Catholic people,” Reynolds said. “It should be from the bottom up, not from the top down.”

Catholic Church and abortion

Even though Catholics are not unified on the topic, church leaders have been actively engaged in the public policy of abortion for more than 50 years.

Church teaching for decades has held clear opposition to abortion at any stage of a pregnancy and Catholics were among the first major religious group to come out against abortion rights in the United States.

Catholic bishops, Dochuk, the Notre Dame professor, said, have been taking ownership of the abortion issue and using their position to influence policy on it since before the Roe decision — he pointed to a 1967 episode in California when Cardinal James Francis McIntyre personally lobbied then Gov. Ronald Reagan to veto a bill expanding abortion access in the state.

Other religious groups, like Evangelical Protestants, became more active following Roe v. Wade. Advocates of the amendment are careful to point out the involvement of many churches and the fact that a major kickoff event for the campaign was held at a Central Christian Church, an Evangelical church in Wichita.

The power of the religious right became clear in the 1980s as Evangelicals and Catholics united around anti-abortion and “family values” politics. While protestants focused on national politics, Dochuk said, Catholics were quick to realize the real fight was in the state and has been building a grassroots movement around abortion for decades.

The church’s role in the Kansas campaign, and the abortion debate nationwide, is a natural extension of that. The result, Dochuk said, is a movement toward “a reassertion of patriarchal power.”

“That single issue is now bundled with a number of other issues revolving around a social conservative view of the family, of gender, of sexuality,” Dochuk said.

Dochuk said the movement on abortion is tied to efforts to roll back LGBTQ rights and infuse public dollars into religious schools.

The Catholic Church takes a hardline view on abortion. While it’s “pro-life” theology extends to opposition to the death penalty, birth control and in vitro fertilization the U.S. Catholic Church has not devoted the same resources to those topics.

In a column in The Leaven, the archdiocese’s newspaper, Naumann explained that “every abortion destroys a human life.”

He pointed to in vitro fertilization technology as evidence of life beginning at conception, while asserting that the practice also held “significant moral problems.”

“Abortion liberates men from any responsibility to mother and child and entices and encourages women to attack an essential part of their femininity,” Naumann wrote.

The likely overturning of Roe, he said, is a moment of “great promise and opportunity for our nation.”

Speaking to The Star while attending the Overland Park tailgate and rosary rally earlier this month Mae Lee, an Ascension parishioner, said she wanted the practice of abortion to end but believed it would take a generation to make it happen.

She praised Naumann for his leadership in eastern Kansas.

“Thou shalt not kill, it’s pretty simple,” Lee said. “And so we have to defend the teachings that God gave the Catholic Church.”

This story was originally published June 26, 2022 at 5:00 AM.

Katie Bernard

The Kansas City Star

(816)234-4167

Katie Bernard covered Kansas politics and government for the Kansas City Star from 20219-2024. Katie was part of the team that won the Headliner award for political coverage in 2023.