JoCo Republican’s ‘equal rights’ bill is a back-door Kansas abortion ban | Opinion
Stunningly cynical.
That’s the only way to describe a proposed new antiabortion-rights measure backed by Kansas state Sen. Mike Thompson, the Johnson County Republican.
The resolution — a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution, which would have to be approved by voters — obscures its intent by parading as a Sunflower State version of the late, lamented Equal Rights Amendment.
Right now, the state constitution’s Bill of Rights guarantees that “all men are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights.” It’s a relic of pre-suffragette days, when women were mostly shut out of the business of voting, governing and otherwise participating directly in American democracy.
The proposed amendment purports to fix that.
If passed, the Kansas Constitution would guarantee that “all men and women are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights.” (The italics are in the proposed resolution, signifying a change from the current law.)
Which sounds great! But there’s a second, kind of sneaky addendum included in the legislation.
Those “inalienable natural rights,” the amendment says, would include the right to “life from conception, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
So it’s a fetal personhood bill, one that clearly bans abortion. One that restricts women’s rights while proclaiming women’s equal rights.
And why not? If it passes, neither men nor women will be able to obtain abortions. Equality!
Voters not fooled with ‘Value Them Both’
We have been down this road before. The antiabortion movement in Kansas has distinguished itself in recent years with its inability — when seeking public approval, at least — to be completely honest about its goals.
The forces behind the failed antiabortion-rights “Value Them Both” amendment in 2022 tried making the case that the proposal didn’t actually ban abortion.
“It doesn’t ban abortion or remove exceptions — that’s just a scare tactic,” Peggy Dunn, then the mayor of Leawood, said in a TV ad that aired widely during the campaign.
Which was technically true, but misleading: The amendment didn’t do the banning, but it would have empowered the Kansas Legislature to end abortion in the state.
Nobody was fooled.
Not for lack of trying. Remember, too, that a PAC connected to former Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp sent misleading texts to pro-choice Kansas voters trying to convince them that a vote for the amendment was a vote for reproductive rights.
It was a lie, plain and simple.
It didn’t work. Nearly 60% of Kansas voters opposed the amendment.
Amendment to elect state Supreme Court justices
On one level, then, you can kind of understand why antiabortion forces rights can’t just level with the public about their aims. The public pretty clearly disagrees with them.
That’s why — if the proposed new amendment does make it through the legislature and to the public for a vote — we should fully expect it to fail. Kansas voters aren’t that easily fooled. And there’s no reason to believe the state has seen a massive shift to the antiabortion-rights camp in the last four years.
That’s not to say that abortion rights are entirely safe here.
Sunflower State voters will be asked this summer to approve a different amendment — championed by Thompson and Attorney General Kris Kobach — to the state constitution. It would change the way Kansas Supreme Court justices are chosen, putting the positions up for statewide election instead of letting the governor have final say.
Backers of the amendment say it’s a pro-democracy measure. Really, it’s an attempt to overturn the court’s current majority that supports abortion rights.
It’s misleading, in other words. That’s just the way Kansas antiabortion politicians operate.
