Abortion

Doctor Brownback and His Unlicensed “Medical Legislators” Push Through Mega Abortion Restriction Bill

When Representative Lance Kinzer introduced the bill he stated, "This is what I did over my summer vacation.”  He should have gone to Disney World instead, since he appears to be related to Mickey Mouse.

Today HB 2598 was passed out of the Kansas House Federal and State Affairs committee.  As written about before here at RH, this is the most sweeping anti-choice bill in the nation.  Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute in remarks about HB 2598 stated  “That is a level above and beyond what we have ever seen.”

Here are just a few provision of this sweeping 68 page abortion bill…

Prohibits the use of tax credits and tax exemptions for optional health insurance abortion coverage riders. 

These are abortion “riders” that were just instituted via legislation last year and were supposed to serve as a way for women to obtain optional abortion coverage in their private insurance companies, which was disallowed by the implementation of the law.  Now they cannot take this as a standard medical deduction.

Prohibits health care services provided by any state agency or any employee of a state agency from including abortion.

This one is a doozy…as it puts KU Medical School’s ob-gyn very accreditation at risk, but that’s the point according to Kansans for Life.  They want to cut off training for any “potential” abortion doctors in the state.  The insertion of a “sunset amendment”, postpones this possible accreditation loss for one year.  One pro-choice legislator stated…

“This gives the women of Kansas a year to flee the state,” said state Rep. Sean Gatewood, D-Topeka.

Prohibits school districts, their employees, volunteers and educational service providers and contractors from providing abortion services and prohibits school districts from allowing any person or entity that provides abortion services from offering, sponsoring or providing education materials about human sexuality.

This is an obvious attack on Planned Parenthood’s age appropriate and medically accurate sex ed programs.  It also provides the added bonus of preventing abortion physicians and possibly Planned Parenthood employees from volunteering at their children’s school.

Defines and prohibits civil action for a claim of “wrongful life” or “wrongful birth.”

This provision would allow physicians to lie to their patients about pregnancy complications that put the mother or the health of the fetus at risk.  It would also allow physician’s to opt out of such common medical testing as amniocentesis testing, which Kansans for Life referred to as “seek and destroy missions” during their committee testimony in favor of the bill.

That abortion includes “risk of premature birth in future pregnancies [and] risk of breast cancer”

This bill requires doctors to inform their patients of a non-existent increased risk of premature birth and breast cancer due to the woman’s abortion procedure.  In other words, physicians would be forced to violate their Hippocratic oath and be ordered to lie to their patients.

Creates new a new state income tax on any expense related to abortion and creates a new corporate income tax on abortion riders. 

This provision would actually allow the state of Kansas to profit from the abortions of women, even if those abortions are provided due to rape, incest or to prevent a substantial irreversible impairment to a bodily function.

The bill also excludes the threat of suicide from the definition of “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” for the purposes of seeking a later term abortion procedure.

When author of the bill Representative Lance Kinzer introduced it he stated, “This is what I did over my summer vacation”.  Tell him he should have gone to Disney World with his family instead of authoring attacks on women’s health and autonomy.

Chairman of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, Representative Steve Brunk, gave opponents of the bill only six days to review the entire 68 pages before giving it a hearing.  This is par for the course, as Chair Brunk works tightly with Kansans for Life lobby and Governor Brownback in pushing these bills through. Tell Chair Brunk and Governor Brownback that women’s healthcare deserves deliberation, consideration and respect.

The rubber-stamping of these unnecessary and harmful bills must stop!