Many pro-life Kansans and their churches have been targets of vandalism in recent weeks leading up to the state-wide vote Tuesday on the Value Them Both Amendment.
The pro-life amendment would add language to the Kansas Constitution stating that there is no right to an abortion or taxpayer-funded abortion. The measure is critical after the Kansas Supreme Court found a so-called “right to abortion” in their state constitution in 2019. The ruling jeopardizes Kansas laws that protect women and babies.
But abortion activists are fighting hard to defeat it, including through dark money groups and a rash of vandalism.
Early Monday morning, two churches, Calvary Temple Assembly of God and Victory Bible Church, were vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti in Lawrence, Kansas News Service editor Stephen Koranda reported on Twitter.
Photos of the vandalism at Victory Bible Church show red spray-paint covering a church sign and the words “Protect choice” and “Vote no” written across the building. A display of pink and blue crosses to represent the unborn babies killed in abortions also was ripped up out of the church yard, according to the report.
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Fox 4 KC reports the Victory Bible congregation has been a vocal supporter of the Value Them Both Amendment.
“We are against abortion. We make no apology about that,” Pastor Leo Barbee told the news outlet Monday. “We believe God has meant this for good. We’re not looking for publicity. We’re not looking for testimony. We just want to be a witness. We feel it’s a God thing more than a hate thing.”
Police are searching for two individuals who were caught on a surveillance video spray-painting the church sign and breaking the cross display.
Here’s more from The Lawrence Times:
A security camera captured what “looked like a man and a woman wearing masks” before they spray-painted the church, Barbee said. …
Calvary Temple Assembly of God, 606 W. 29th Terrace, also was defaced. Pro-choice messages were spray-painted in red on three sides of the church. “My body, my choice,” was spray-painted across the church front.
Rev. Don Goatley and his wife discovered the vandalism Monday while on an early morning walk.
“In our 51 years here, this has never happened,” Goatley said. “It is sad that our society has come to this point. We are going to have to do a lot of painting.”
In July, Church of the Ascension in Overland Park and Community Church in Topeka also were vandalized with pro-abortion graffiti, according to reports from the Topeka Capital-Journal and KSNT. Additionally, the Cowley County GOP Office in Winfield was vandalized and pro-life materials were lit on fire in the office doorway at the end of June, Fox News reports.
Then, on Sunday, a young woman with Students for Life allegedly was shoved and hit in the head by an angry abortion activist in Overland Park.
Police and local news outlets reported more vandalisms and stolen pro-life “Vote Yes” signs at homes and communities across the state in recent weeks.
Other reports include:
- Derby Neighborhood Fence, Mural Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (KAKE)
- Salina Police Cite Woman for Damaging Pro-Life “Vote Yes” Signs at 8 Locations (Salina Journal)
- Pro-Life Yard Signs Ripped Apart, Stolen at Multiple Homes Ahead of Pro-Life Amendment Vote (Value Them Both campaign) (more at KSNT)
- Emporia Police Report Stolen, Damaged “Vote Yes” Signs Ahead of Pro-Life Vote (KVOE)
To amend the Kansas Constitution, the state legislature must approve the amendment language by a two-thirds majority and then a majority of voters must approve it on the ballot.
Pro-life organizations in Kansas are working together to support the pro-life amendment, including Kansans for Life, Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, the Kansas Catholic Conference and Concerned Women for America of Kansas.
The 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt threatens all existing limits on the abortion industry in the state.
Without the amendment, Kansas could become the “wild west of the abortion industry,” said Brittany Jones, Esq., director of advocacy for the Family Police Alliance of Kansas, previously. This could mean forcing taxpayers to fund elective abortions and allowing unrestricted abortions up to birth, as well as ending informed consent requirements and parental consent for minors.
In several states, courts have found a so-called “right to abortion” in their state constitutions. The rulings have been used to force taxpayers to fund abortions and restrict the state legislature from passing even minor, common sense abortion restrictions. In 2018, West Virginia voters passed a similar state constitutional amendment after decades of being forced by a court ruling to fund elective abortions with their tax dollars.
