Proposed constitutional amendment would put abortion back on the Kansas ballot
A Kansas Republican is once again looking for a path to stop abortion, with a new proposal to change the state constitution to say life begins at conception.
Senator Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican, introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 1623 on behalf of Doug Johnson, calling it an “equal rights amendment.”
The same language is used in Senate calendar listings, where no mention is made of additional language that makes it an anti-abortion measure. According to its text, the amendment seeks to “clearly guarantee the equal rights of men and women, beginning at conception.”
The resolution currently sits in the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs, which Thompson chairs. He has not added it to published agendas and didn’t respond to a Kansas Reflector request asking when it might be heard.
The Kansas Supreme Court determined in 2019 that the state’s constitution protects abortion because it protects a woman’s right to personal autonomy.
In 2022, Kansas voters defeated a state constitutional amendment that would have changed that language and opened the door to an abortion ban. The proposal failed by a 59 percent to 41 percent vote.
“Continued efforts to revisit that choice show us precisely what these politicians think of Kansas voters: that they’re either not paying attention or too naïve to understand what’s going on,” said Taylor Morton, legislative affairs and organizing manager with Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes. “Kansans know better, and we trust them to see this for what it is — an attack on their rights.”
Typically, Senate concurrent resolutions are heard in the assigned committee, which then reports to the Senate.
The Senate debates and votes. A two-thirds majority is required for constitutional amendment resolutions to pass. The same process occurs in the House. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly doesn’t have veto power, and the question is sent to voters.
Kansas’ earlier vote made international news as it was the first state to put abortion rights to the test after the Supreme Court changed federal law.
“In a major victory for abortion rights, Kansas voters on Tuesday rejected an effort to strip away their state’s abortion protections, sending a decisive message about the issue’s popularity in the first political test since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June,” the Washington Post reported on Aug. 2, 2022.
