Kansas amendment was a political stunt, not a realistic attempt to reduce abortions

As a member of the Kansas House of Representatives, I can honestly say I don’t believe there’s a single one of my colleagues who would not like to find ways to lower the number of abortions in Kansas. That being said, I voted no on the constitutional amendment on abortion that came before the House last Friday.

I voted against the proposal, which would have put a measure on the August ballot to allow the state to impose limits on abortion, because I believe it falsely promised a simplistic answer to a very complicated problem. It offered a “just say no” approach to the abortion issue — an approach that has been tried before, with dismal and sometimes fatal outcomes for both mother and fetus.

This was a politically motivated amendment aimed at furthering the political careers of some officials in leadership positions in the House and Senate. Conservatives were insistent it be placed on the August ballot, knowing elections during that month draw the least interest and fewest voters. If enacted, the poorly-written legislation would have continued to deeply divide us as legislators and as Kansans.

Today, more than 140,000 Kansas women have no access to family planning services, including birth control. If the conservatives in the Legislature were seriously interested in lowering the number of abortions in the state, rather than promoting their own self-serving political interests, they would support more easily available and affordable access to contraception, as well as more comprehensive sex education. They would also support the funding necessary to place more counselors and psychologists in our public schools.

If they were really interested in lowering the number of abortions, these legislators would support expanding Medicaid in Kansas. Medicaid expansion would give low-income pregnant women who might be afraid of not being able to afford a larger family the comfort of knowing that they and their children would have access to affordable, quality health care. These lawmakers would support the expansion of post-natal medical care, increasing the availability of pre-K classes in our public schools and providing better job training opportunities for low-income mothers. All of these programs would give pregnant women of limited means the hope that they would be able to care for and financially provide for a child.

Kansans have a history of being able to solve complicated problems. We have the capacity to address the abortion issue through a process of discussion, compromise and cooperation. This absolutist constitutional amendment was not the answer to this problem, and that is why it was rejected by the Kansas House.

The Kansas Legislature should now try to craft an abortion-reduction solution that could become a national model. Would this be easy? Absolutely not. But as President John F. Kennedy said, we sometimes undertake difficult tasks “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” It is time we make a commitment to do the tough work necessary to accomplish a solution that is worthwhile, effective and worthy of national attention.

It will be interesting to see if leadership is interested in actually finding a solution, or simply carrying on with politics as usual.

This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 12:32 PM with the headline "Kansas amendment was a political stunt, not a realistic attempt to reduce abortions."