by Sarah Bellows-Blakely, Outreach Intern
National Women’s Law Center
As a born and bred Kansan, I want to say a big thank you to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the 14 state senators who stood up for women’s health. Last week, Gov. Sebelius vetoed a state bill that would have allowed significant government intrusion into a woman’s most private medical decisions regarding the termination of a pregnancy. On Wednesday, fourteen senators voted to uphold her veto, defeating the two-thirds majority needed to overturn it by only two votes. This is the second time in less than a month (after the Kansas Jayhawks’ awesome victory in the men’s finals of the NCAA basketball championship) that I can proudly yell, GO KANSAS!
If the senate had successfully overridden Gov. Sebelius’s veto, the law would have:
- Allowed public officials, spouses, siblings, parents, and grandparents of women seeking a
post-viability abortion to file for an injunction to stop the procedure, even when it could
be necessary to save her life. - Forced doctors to offer to show women an ultrasound or ask them to listen to the heartbeat of the fetus at least thirty minutes before the beginning of the procedure.
- Provided the attorney general and district and county prosecutors with the jurisdiction to go after doctors who perform post-viability abortions.
- Mandated that the State Government have more access to women’s medical records.
- And that’s not all—these are only some of the burdensome restrictions in the legislation.
As I initially watched this bill’s progress through the Kansas Legislature, one of the claims I repeatedly heard from its proponents was that it would “protect” women from being forced into having “coerced abortions.” Call me naïve, but it seems pretty obvious that this law would have done the exact opposite. Instead of leaving the medical decision-making to women and their doctors, it would have allowed the women’s extended family members and any public official with a bone to pick to intervene, even in a potentially life-threatening situation. Additionally, the idea that a grown woman is so incompetent that she could be “coerced” into having a post-viability abortion—an abortion that, by law, can only take place if her life is at risk or one of her major bodily functions is in serious danger—suggests that the people who supported this bill don’t respect women enough to make their own informed medical decisions.
When reading this piece of legislation, I repeatedly found myself asking, what is the purpose here? Was this bill—which appears to be a laundry list of attempts to tighten restrictions on women and their doctors, regardless of the women’s wishes or their medical needs—really intended to support women? Unfortunately, I think the answer is no.
Thankfully, Gov. Sebelius and the state senators who upheld her veto realize that the best way to promote the well-being of Kansas women is to leave the medical decisions to us and our doctors, not the politicians. While it troubles me to think that this bill was only two votes shy of becoming a law, it is nice to know that at least the governor and the 14 state senators who voted to sustain her veto are on my side.
For that reason, I yet again find myself with the opportunity to yell, GO KANSAS!! This win may not have been as glamorous as the Jayhawks’ overtime victory against the Memphis Tigers last month, but it is certainly just as important to recognize.
Never thought I would say this after Kansas screwed up my NCAA bracket, but you managed to convince me, Sarah...
GO KANSAS!
Posted by: Becca Stanger | May 21, 2008 at 02:13 PM