Public policy advocacy is an extension of the heart of the Catholic Church. Initiated and guided by our Kansas Bishops, the Kansas Catholic Conference seeks public policies that reflect authentic Catholic thinking and priorities.
Click to join our ALERTS list.
Have You Heard the News?
Reasonable Kansas abortion laws thought were safe - are not. What is the abortion industry hiding?
June 6, 2023
Just last summer during the height of the Value Them Both campaign, the Kansas abortion industry repeatedly assured citizens that current Kansas laws were not and would not be in jeopardy. The secular (and decidedly abortion-friendly) news media shrugged its collective shoulders in near-silent agreement without so much as a whimper of a challenge to this shameful lie.
What a difference a year makes. Today what we all thought would happen, did happen.
The abortion industry—led by notorious Johnson County abortionists Hodes & Nauser and Planned Parenthood Great Plains—filed a lawsuit seeking to eviscerate the very heart of the long-standing Kansas Women’s Right to Know Act as well as the recently passed Abortion Pill Reversal Act.
Make no mistake about what’s happening here. This is a despicable attack on the integrity and safety of Kansas women. Access to authentic healthcare information that pregnant women need and deserve to help them make a deeply personal, life-changing decision about their pregnancy to crucial. They have a right to know. That right is now in grave jeopardy.
If Kansas Courts agree with the abortion industry, all this information and these protections will float away like yesterday’s newspaper in the wind. This is a cruel attempt at deception by censoring and eliminating knowledge. These laws offer information and really, do not restrict abortion in any way.
What is the abortion industry hiding?
The Women’s Right to Know Act has been in place since 1997 and passed unanimously in both chambers- Senate 36-0 and House 118-0. The law requires common sense measures for a woman seeking an abortion. These measures include a 24-hour waiting period, KDHE-issued medical information about abortion methods, risks, and alternatives, pre-natal development, and county-by-county listing of resources available to women who are pregnant. Information regarding the
Women’s Right to Know can be found on this Kansas Department of Health and Environment website:
http://www.womansrighttoknow.org/
The Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) simply requires that information about the possible reversal of a chemical abortion be posted in facilities dispensing abortion chemicals. This information goes directly to the woman receiving the abortion chemicals.
Medical professionals, stories and personal testimonies from women, supported with scientific evidence, proves that APR works 64%-68% of the time. https://lozierinstitute.org/abortion-pillreversal-a-record-of-safety-and-efficacy/
Pregnancy Help News https://pregnancyhelpnews.com/ reports as many as 4,000 babies are alive today thanks to APR!
The Catholic Bishops of Kansas, their public policy arm at the Kansas Catholic Conference and countless Catholics and others across the state value both women and their preborn children.
The Kansas abortion industry does not. We renew our pledge to be there as an advocate for women in unplanned pregnancies, offering real help and support. www.HelpingKansasWomen.org
Watch for more information as this lawsuit makes its way through the judicial system. In the meantime, be skeptical about what you read, see and hear on the news. Test everything. Offer prayer and fasting for women experiencing heartbreaking angst over their unplanned pregnancy—and healing for those who have had an abortion.
We will not abandon women and babies to the abortion industry. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Unborn–Pray for us!
BORN ALIVE INFANT PROTECTION ACT
HB 2313 declared that if a child somehow survived an abortion alive, we would be compelled by law to provide the same kind of care for that child as any other. This seemed to be an absolute minimum in terms of basic human rights. Physician and new State Representative Dr. Ron Bryce of Coffeyville Email: ron@ronbryce.com carried this bill and testified that as a resident at a Texas hospital he encountered this situation 27 times over the course of three years. The Legislature passed the born-alive bill which the governor said was misleading and unnecessary. The House overrode the governor’s veto of the bill 87-37. It was overridden in the Senate on a 31-9 vote. The bill now becomes law. Please send a THANK YOU to Representative Bryce.
PREGNANCY RESOURCE CENTERS
States like Texas, Missouri, and Tennessee have devoted millions of taxpayer dollars in recent years to help support Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRC’s). We went to work to find out how this might work and if it could happen in Kansas. State Representative Brenda Landwehr, Chair of the House Health Committee was our champion. Send an a THANK YOU to Rep. Landwehr at brenda.landwehr@house.ks.gov
This was a two-part bill: 1) establish the program, then 2) FUND it. Committee hearings were big eye-openers for legislators across-the-board. Many on “the left” had never heard of a pregnancy resource center or knew what they did. We brought in a mom and her baby who testified (paraphrased): “I wouldn’t be here—WE would be here—if not for our local pregnancy resource center.” The governor vetoed $2 million for this program that promotes alternatives to
abortion, which was a centerpiece of the Kansas Catholic Conference legislative agenda. The House voted 86-38 to override the governor’s line-item veto of the bill and the Senate voted 29-11 to reject the veto and the money was eventually allocated. KEEP SUPPORTING PRC’S! Many will not accept government money and the
two million will go FAST!
ABORTION PILL REVERSAL HB 2264
According to the latest available data from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), 67.8% of all abortions in Kansas are chemical abortions—a two-pill protocol where the first pill destroys the environment around the baby, and the second pill forces the baby out of the mother. (Think about the movie: Unplanned). Highly profitable for the abortion industry with virtually no oversight about complications, etc. The bill required that a women should be informed that after the first pill, abortion pill reversal medication —progesterone— might reverse the process (60%-65% of the time). The Legislature passed a similar bill in 2019 but ultimately couldn’t override the governor’s veto. This year the House voted 84-40 and the Senate 29-11 to override the governor’s veto.
Most Kansans are put off by what is known as “the culture wars.” The loser in most culture war battles is whoever looks like the aggressor. This is why the secular news media goes to great lengths to pretend that entities like the Catholic Church instigate these culture war conflicts. Like the abortion issue, this is simply not the case.
Legislation connected to gender ideology in schools and in our culture have been introduced and passed in response to progressives and other special interest groups demanding that children be taught to be transgender or ‘nonbinary’ theory in schools. Bills focused on parents’ rights are a response to the ideology leading to actions like surgical gender transitions that public educators, some in the medical profession and others are pushing onto society. Would we be advocating for bills preventing the mutilation of children and pumping them full of hormone-blocking drugs if this were not happening? Of course not. In fact, we would have never thought of such a thing. The secular news media is not reporting this issue fairly or accurately.
They consistently—and falsely–frame this issue as an “attack” on “trans people.” Ours is a response to what we believe and know to be the truth of the human person, which we will always protect and defend. To contend otherwise is like saying Ukrainians are becoming more combative for no reason—ignoring that their sovereign country has been invaded. We must stand tall in face of this secular persecution.
Part of the Catholic Church answer to same-sex attraction and sexual confusion can be found at Courage International, the ONLY Vatican-approved apostolate dealing with these issues. www.CourageRC.org
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all evil spirits who prowl throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
"The Kansas Catholic Conference is your Catholic voice in Topeka. By being informed and engaged, you help us make Kansas a better place to live, work and raise our families."
– Chuck Weber, Director of the KCC
Chuck Weber, Executive Director
Email: Chuck@KansasCatholic.org
Phone: 316-708-5350
Kansas Catholics:
Our Faith Is About Each And Every One Of Us.
From our sacraments protected by religious freedom, to our Catholic Education fueled by the passion of Catholics statewide. What we do matters. What you do matters.