Kansas Senate Fails to Override Sebelius Veto on Bill to Limit Abortions
Email this article
Printer friendly page
RSS Newsfeed
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 30, 2008
Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) — The Kansas Senate failed by two votes to overturn a veto from pro-abortion Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on a bill that would have put several common sense abortion limits in place. The vote would have failed by one but a pro-life lawmaker was absent at the time of the debate.
The Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act failed on a 25-14 vote and, had Senator Emler been there, the Senate would have been one shy of the 27 votes needed.
The House approved the legislation on a veto-proof majority, so a victory in the Senate would have meant the measure would likely have become law.
Mary Kay Culp, the head of Kansans for Life, told LifeNews.com afterwards that she thinks the Senate may revisit the override.
If not, her group plans to hold pro-abortion legislators accountable for standing in the way of helping women and reducing abortions.
"Those of us who understand exactly what happened are sickened, and if this vote is not revisited, plan to do everything we can to insure that Kansas pro-life citizens also understand it, and get involved in this year’s senate elections," she said.
The legislation would provide for better enforcement of the late-term abortion laws there and reduce teen abortion.
It covers 17 areas of abortion law meant to limit the number of abortions, give women more information and protect parental rights. And it allows lawsuits against abortion practitioners who may be violating state abortion law.
The proposed law would allow women to see an ultrasound of their unborn child and would help prevent forced abortions.
Because the Senate defeated the override vote, Culp told LifeNews.com Kansas women were victimized.
"They were re-victimized by Senate leadership who thought it more important to grant an excuse to attend a lecture to a Senator who voted yes originally, than to grant women the right to see their unborn child when deciding whether to have an abortion," she said.
Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri was elated by the vote and Peter Brownlie, president of the abortion business, told the Topeka Capital Journal that the legislature should consider other issues apart from reducing abortions.
“It is time the Kansas Legislature move beyond this politically divisive issue," he said.
The measure includes the Teen Protection Act, which the Kansas House approved in 2006 on a bipartisan vote.
It targets criminals who sexually abuse teenagers and take them for abortions to cover up their crimes. As a result, the bill makes judges in parental notice bypass hearings become mandatory abuse reporters.
The measure also requires abortion businesses to check IDs of minors and companions, report child sexual abuse to state officials, report incest to law enforcement, and notify the custodial parent of a pregnant minor’s intended abortion.
Related web sites:
Kansans for Life – https://www.kfl.org
