Women’s health and safety pushed aside as VALUE THEM BOTH Amendment continues to be only defense against aggressive advances of the abortion industry
This week a Shawnee County District Court judge struck down a Kansas law guaranteeing commonsense protections for women’s health and safety through basic abortion clinic inspection, licensing and sanitation standards.
The law is the most recent victim of a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that caused all existing state regulations of the abortion industry to be “presumed unconstitutional.” The ruling on the clinic safety law follows on the heels of another abortion industry regulation ruling in April 2021, which struck down Kansas’ ban on live dismemberment abortions, citing the same case law.
In 2020, the year following the Hodes ruling, the number of Kansas abortions increased by 9%. Over half the total abortions performed were on out of state residents.
For more than 20 years, the abortion industry has fought vehemently against every proposed oversight of its practices, including the facility inspection and standards law, which garnered both republican and democrat support to pass in 2011. After passage, the industry sued to block the broadly supported standards at first opportunity, claiming it was capable of monitoring its own actions.
“The abortion industry has proven repeatedly that it cannot police itself,” said Jeanne Gawdun, KFL Director of Government Relations. “The abortion clinic licensing and inspection law passed with strong bipartisan support in response to a whistleblower employee’s evidence showing dangerous and inhumane conditions women were exposed to in a Kansas City, Kansas, abortion clinic. This real-life situation put women’s lives at risk in a dirty facility using unsanitary practices.”
Mandatory standards elicited broad consensus among Kansans, both pro-choice and pro-life, who believed women deserve basic health and safety standards, with state oversight, to ensure the protections are consistently provided.
“The abortion industry’s quest to remove even the most basic regulations on clinics, through Kansas courts, continues.” said Danielle Underwood, KFL Director of Communications. “What kind of surgical center would complain about or fight against safety oversight? No matter where you stand on the topic of abortion, we should all agree that women should not be subjected to third world medical standards.”
“Voting Yes on the VALUE THEM BOTH Amendment on August 2nd is the only way for Kansans to protect women from this and even more aggressive advances of the abortion industry. Value Them Both will allow Kansans to reclaim our ability to regulate the abortion industry through our elected officials,” said Underwood.
If the abortion industry operates above reproach, why are they afraid of oversight or basic regulations? If they have nothing to hide and want to legitimize their practices, adherence to state oversight is an obligation to the people they claim to serve.