Kansas Bill Protecting Pregnant Women, Unborn Heads to Gov. Sebelius 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 25, 2007
Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) — The Kansas legislature has given the final approval to a bill that would protect pregnant women and their unborn children from acts of violence. The final House vote was 97 to 27, which is significantly more than needed to override a veto if pro-abortion Gov. Kathleen Sebelius decides to do that.
The Senate previously sign off on the bill on a 26-14 vote margin and 27 are needed in the upper chamber for an override.
Under Kansas law, Sebelius has three options — she can sign the measure into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without her signature.
The Associated Press reports that a spokesman for the governor says she hasn’t decided what action she will take on the bill.
The measure has the support of pro-life groups and Kansans for Life told LifeNews.com on Wednesday that the abortion industry is lobbying the governor heavily to veto it. KFL urged pro-life advocates to contact Sebelius and ask her to sign the bill.
The legislation would allow two charges when a criminal kills both a pregnant mother and her unborn child in an act of violence. Current state law doesn’t allow prosecutors to hold attackers accountable for both crimes.
The bill is known as Alexa’s Law and is named after teenager Chelsea Brooks and her baby Alexa who were both murdered. Chelsea’s family was disturbed to learn the state had no law charging the attacker with killing Alexa.
"I honestly didn’t think it would be such a challenge to get this point," Terri Brooks, Chelsea’s mother, said recently. "I was very surprised Kansas didn’t have a fetal homicide law."
"You would think if we can pass laws to protect animals such as Scruffy’s law which makes it a felony to mistreat an animal….that we can pass a law to protect human life," father Darren Brooks added.
Chelsea’s pregnant body was found in Butler County. The alleged killer was charged only with the murder of Chelsea, an 8th grade student from Wichita.
The state Senate defeated the bill twice before when committees failed to take a vote on it.
Currently, 34 states have such a law and 24 of them protect pregnant women and their babies throughout pregnancy. Law in 10 states have gone to state or federal courts and they have been upheld as constitutional every time.
The most famous case involving an unborn victims law came in California when Scott Peterson was convicted of two counts of murder for killing his pregnant wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son Conner.
He was found guilty of dumping their bodies into San Francisco Bay and both bodies turned up when authorities searched the banks of the lake.
ACTION: Contact Governor Sebelius and urge her to sign Alexa’s Law. You can go to https://www.governor.ks.gov/contact.htm to contact the governor or call toll-free at 877-579-6757.
Related web sites:
Kansans for Life – https://www.kfl.org
Alexa’s Law – https://www.alexaslaw.com
