By JOHN HANNA
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Abortion rights advocates are trying to defeat a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the Kansas Constitution by arguing it will lead to a ban on most abortions like a measure being pursued in Tennessee.
The Kansas proposal, aimed at overturning a state Supreme Court decision last year protecting abortion rights, is modeled on a change that Tennessee voters approved in their state’s constitution in 2014. Like the Tennessee amendment, the Kansas proposal would declare that the state constitution does not “secure” a right to abortion and that legislators decide how it is regulated.
The Kansas proposal was up for debate Wednesday in the state Senate, with a final vote expected Thursday. Supporters needed two-thirds majorities in both chambers to ask voters to approve the change in a statewide election and were hoping to get it on the August primary ballot.
The debate in Kansas came less a week after Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, announced that he would introduce legislation to ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. That can occur about six weeks into pregnancy and before many women know they’re pregnant.
“We are the canary in the mine, so Kansas can just look at us,” said Francie Hunt, executive director of Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood. “It has everything to do with outlawing access to safe, legal abortion altogether.”
But abortion opponents in Kansas for years have avoided pursuing laws representing a direct challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which legalized abortion nationwide. They’ve instead concentrated on enacting a raft of restrictions expected to withstand court challenges.
The Kansas proposal differs from Tennessee’s constitutional provision by saying that legislators’ ability to regulate abortion would be “to the extent permitted” by the U.S. Constitution. Abortion foes said there’s no push for a ban coming, while abortion rights advocates expect it if Roe is overturned.
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled last year that under the state’s Bill of Rights, access to abortion is a “fundamental right,” meaning state courts could invalidate restrictions that the federal courts would uphold. Abortion opponents fear the loss of long standing policies, such as parental notification when most minors seek abortions.
Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, called the argument that the measure could lead to a ban a “scare tactic.” She was leading anti-abortion senators in Wednesday’s debate. She said the Kansas Supreme Court set an “impossible standard” for preserving restrictions.
“We believe the restrictions we have on abortion are working. We think they protect women. They protect children,” she said. “Our laws our reasonable. We have to bring the question to the people of Kansas.”
Anti-abortion groups are insisting that the measure be placed on the primary election ballot. They argue that the question is less likely to get lost than in November, when President Donald Trump’s election is on the ballot.
Kansans for Life, the state’s most influential anti-abortion group, urged its members in an email last week to push lawmakers not to change the election date and called any proposal to put the question on the November ballot “a poison pill.”
The smaller primary electorate generally skews more conservative, and some abortion rights advocates have said they believe the proposed amendment would fail on the November ballot.
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