Kansas Senate Fails To Override Veto Of Antiabortion Legislation

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 05 May 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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Kansas Senate on Wednesday failed to override Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' (D) veto of a bill (House Substitute for SB 389) that included a number of antiabortion-related provisions, the Wichita Eagle reports (Koranda, Wichita Eagle, 5/1). According to the Kansas City Star, the Senate voted 25-14 -- two votes short of the two-thirds majority required to override a veto (Sullinger, Kansas City Star, 4/30).

The bill would have expanded information physicians must provide to the state when they perform abortions, required that more information be made public and mandated that abortion clinic employees report suspected abuse of minors. Among other provisions, the measure would have required a physician to meet privately with a woman 30 minutes before the abortion is performed. It also would have required that a woman provide a written reason for the abortion, and that a physician offer a woman the option to see ultrasound images and hear fetal heartbeats if the facility has the equipment (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/23).

Julie Burkhart, CEO for the abortion-rights group ProKanDo, said, "We are delighted that women's health and safety has been upheld in Kansas and that women will be able to make those health care decisions for themselves." She added that allowing law enforcement officials, public officials and family members to intervene and stop an abortion after 21 weeks' gestation would be "a form of reversed coercion. ... It would just wreak havoc that county and district prosecutors would have the right to go snooping around in the private medical files of women" (Wichita Eagle, 5/1).

Sen. Tim Huelskamp (R), who led the effort against the veto, said the bill would have helped prevent coerced abortions, particularly for minors (Kansas City Star, 4/30). Huelskamp said that he is "very disappointed in the governor's veto and very disappointed that [the Senate was] unable to override the veto." He added that the measure included "some real means by which to protect young women across the state ... that are forced against their will [to] come to an abortion clinic by a sexual predator" (Wichita Eagle, 5/1).

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