Kansas anti-abortion bill passes

Information for this article was contributed by Maria Fisher, David Crary, David Lieb and John O’Connor of The Associated Press.

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas legislators gave final passage to a sweeping anti-abortion measure Friday night, sending Gov. Sam Brownback a bill that declares life begins “at fertilization” while blocking tax breaks for abortion providers and banning abortions performed solely because of the baby’s sex.

The House voted 90-30 for a compromise version of the bill reconciling differences between the two chambers, only hours after the Senate approved it, 28-10. The Republican governor is a strong abortion opponent, and supporters of the measure expect him to sign it into law so the new restrictions take effect July 1.

In addition to the bans on tax breaks and sex-selection abortions, the bill prohibits abortion providers from being involved in public-school sex- education classes and spells out in more detail what information doctors must provide to patients seeking abortions.

“The human is a magnificent piece of work at all stages of development, wondrous in every regard, from the microscopic until full development,” said Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, a Leavenworth Republican who supported the bill.

Many anti-abortion legislators see “at fertilization” statements as symbolic and not outright bans on terminating pregnancies. But such a statement could underpin lawsuits by prospective parents or grandparents who want to block abortions or be cited by abortion opponents in pushing law enforcement officials to scrutinize clinics, said Troy Newman, president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.

“For me, this is just delightful,” Newman said. “It opens up so many avenues.”

The declaration that life begins at fertilization is embodied in “personhood” measures in other states. Such measures are aimed at revising the states’ constitutions to ban all abortions. None have been enacted, though North Dakota voters will have one on the ballot in 2014.

But Kansas lawmakers aren’t trying to change the state constitution, and the measure notes that any rights suggested by the language are limited by decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. That court declared in its Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 that women have a right to obtain abortions in some circumstances, and has upheld that decision while allowing increasing restrictions by states.

Thirteen states, including Missouri, have such language in their laws, according to the National Right to Life Committee. So far, similar language those states has failed to trigger high-profile court challenges, experts say.

A preamble to Missouri’s abortion restrictions that states that life begins at conception has been in place since 1986 and has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, which said states can “make a value judgment favoring childbirth over abortion.” The only notable effect in Missouri came in 2010, when a law required that women wanting an abortion must be given a brochure that includes a statement taken from the preamble: “The life of each human being begins at conception.”

Sen. David Haley, a Kansas Democrat who opposed the bill, zeroed in on the statement, saying supporters of the bill were pursuing a “Taliban-esque” course of letting religious views dictate policy limiting women’s ability to make decisions about health care and whether they’ll have children.

Brownback has signed multiple anti-abortion measures into law, and the number of pregnancies terminated in the state has declined 11 percent since he took office in January 2011. This year’s legislation is less restrictive than a new North Dakota law that bans abortions as early as the sixth week of pregnancy and a new Arkansas law prohibiting most abortions after the 12th week.

Abortion-rights advocates said Kansas’ new restrictions won’t be as severe as those states, but they also don’t trust assertions from abortion opponents that the language on when life begins represents only a statement of principles.

“Could it be used as a tool of harassment? Absolutely,” said Holly Weatherford, lobbyist and program director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri.

The bill passed despite any solid data on how many sex-selection abortions are performed in Kansas. A 2008 study by two Columbia University economists suggested the practice of aborting female fetuses — widespread in some nations where parents traditionally prefer sons — is limited in the U.S. But legislators on both sides of the issue said the practice should be banned, however frequent it is.

The bill also would require physicians to give women information that addresses breast cancer as a potential risk of abortion. Advocates on both sides acknowledge there’s medical evidence that carrying a fetus to term can lower a woman’s risk for breast cancer, but doctors convened by the National Cancer Institute a decade ago concluded that abortion does not raise the risk for developing the disease.

The provisions dealing with tax breaks are designed to prevent the state from subsidizing abortions, even indirectly.