Kansas House Committee Approves Abortion Business Regulation Bill

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 16, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 16, 2006

Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) — A state House committee has approved legislation that would require abortion businesses to meet a minimum set of safety standards expected of legitimate medical facilities. The bill is identical to one that pro-abortion Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed last year.

The Health and Human Services Committee signed off on the bill on a 10-8 vote. It would require the Department of Health and Environment to issue abortion facility regulations.

Rep. Nancy Kirk, a Topeka Democrat, originally wrote the bill to have the same standards apply to all medical facilities, but the committee rewrote it to apply only to abortion centers after complaints from the Kansas Medical Society.

Kansans for Life also objected to the original bill’s wording because it says the state needs to concentrate its attention on abortion facilities because they have escaped scrutiny for too long.

The group points to the January 2005 death of a mentally disabled teenager from Texas who went to Wichita for a late-term abortion. The abortion killed her but abortion practitioner George Tiller has escaped prosecution.

The Board of Healing Arts concluded he did nothing wrong even though the autopsy showed the abortion killed Christin, the 19 year-old girl.

Pro-life advocates also point to the abortion facility formerly run by Krishna Rajanna in Kansas City. Rajanna recently lost his medical license because of filthy conditions at the abortion center.

However, pro-life groups brought up the problems two years before the state board finally took action.

Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Republican, said "It’s appropriate at this time that we continue looking at clinics we think have serious problems," according to a Topeka Capital Journal report.

Kirk says she fears Sebelius will veto the bill again as she did last year and in 2003.

The original bill would have applied to liposuctions and colonoscopies but now applies only to places where abortions are done outside of a hospital.

Related web sites:
Kansas State legislature – https://www.kslegislature.org
Kansans for Life – https://www.kfl.org
Justice for Christin – https://justiceforchristin.com