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Kansas governor warns passage of constitutional amendment will invite wave of abortion restrictions [1]

['Tim Carpenter', 'More From Author', '- July']

Date: 2022-07-25  

TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly warned passage of an amendment removing the right to abortion from the Kansas Constitution would prompt an emboldened Republican-led Legislature to pass new restraints on the right of women to control their reproductive health.

“The amendment is written in such a way that the proponents of the amendment want to suggest that this would just leave things as they are in Kansas. But that’s not true,” Kelly said during the Kansas Reflector podcast. “What would happen if that amendment would pass is that the Legislature would immediately come back with some very severe restrictions on a woman’s ability to control her own fate.”

Kelly said she was voting against the amendment because it was essential to reinforce the right of women to maintain bodily autonomy. She expected the statewide vote to be “very close.” It follows the June reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that affirmed nationwide the right to abortion.

Voting in Kansas closes Aug. 2 on the amendment, which was drafted by opponents of abortion and approved by two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate. Campaign finance reports show more than $11 million has been spent to influence public opinion on the amendment.

Kelly said she was confident in the security and accuracy of voting in this and future Kansas elections, because state and local officials took their duties seriously.

“You know, I think if you want to have a voice in what happens in your life in your world, then it’s important that you take the time, make the effort to go to the polls and elect people you think will truly represent your values,” the governor said.

Kelly is seeking reelection as governor in November. She will be competing against Republican Derek Schmidt, the state’s attorney general and a former colleague of Kelly’s in the Kansas Senate. In addition, state Sen. Dennis Pyle, a conservative Republican from Hiawatha, is collecting petition signatures in an attempt to get on the Nov. 8 ballot as an independent candidate for governor.

Kelly said during the podcast interview she would focus her campaign on “bread-and-butter” issues of education, transportation, health care, tax relief, the social safety net, economic development and stability of the state budget. She was elected in 2018 following eight years with Republican Govs. Jeff Colyer and Sam Brownback at the helm.

“Our budget was a mess when I came into office,” Kelly said. “We have now fully funded our schools for the last four years. That was incredibly important to Kansans. Not only have we been able to fully fund, you know, basic essential services in the state, we’ve also been able to eliminate the sales tax on food. And we are now sitting on the largest ending balance in the state’s history. We’ve got about $1.5 billion in our ending balance.”

This story was published earlier by the Kansas Reflector, an affiliate of the nonprofit States Newsroom network, which includes the Florida Phoenix.

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[1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/07/25/kansas-governor-warns-passage-of-constitutional-amendment-will-invite-wave-of-abortion-restrictions/

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