The Kansas Senate voted 24-15 in favor of the abortion licensure bill, H sub SB 36, today that was sponsored by Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook (R-Shawnee).
Kansans for Life, the pro-life statewide group, offered reaction to the vote and more information on the legislation:
We applaud its long-awaited passage, instituting Court-approved medical protocols and sanitation for abortion businesses.
From the Kansas City Rajanna clinic to the Phildalphia House of Horror Gosnell clinic, abortion businesses have shown themselves willing to cut any corner for a profit and have relied on the inherent shame of the abortion to hinder women and their families from demanding state intervention.
Undder the new licensure, ultrasound use is now mandated for all abortions, and under a 2009 Woman’s RIght to Know & See provision, the mother must be asked if she wishes to see the ultrasound and receive a hard copy.
H Sub SB 36 prevents abortions by surgery or pills by non- physicians and bans the novel “webcam” abortions where dangerous abortion pills would be dispensed remotely via computer.
The number of Kansas abortions by pill continue to rise, (26.8% in 2010) at a rate well above the national average.
The non-reporting of injuries and deaths of women at Kansas abortions was a topic of today’s Senate debate. Sen. Pilcher-Cook remrked that the absence of hard data on abortion injuries exactly proved the need for the bill. H Sub SB 36 will require abortion-licensed facilities to report maternal deaths to the state health department within one business day , and maternal injuries within 10 calendar days.
There is no deficiency in the drafting of the bill, despite a misconception of Sen. Francisco who was reading a provision that post-22 week abortions can never be done in a doctor office “clinic”–only in ambulatory surgical centers or hospitals. The abortion clinic license must be obtained by any business doing elective abortions: five or more first trimester or any second or third trimester abortion in a given month. Examples: A doctor office/clinic may perform as many as 4 abortions per month under the gestational age of 22 weeks without applying for licensure. A hospital performing abortions as the only resolution to save the life or physical health of the mother need not apply for a license.
Abortion by pills is a protocol of 2 drugs, the first, RU 486, must be administered in person by a Kansas-licensed physician, The abortionist decides whether he will require the woman to return for the second set of pills or allow her to administer them to herself.
