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Kansas anti-abortion measure short of passage, delaying vote

AP Political Writer | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 8 months AGO
by AP Political Writer
| February 7, 2020 8:30 AM

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Top Republican legislators on Friday delayed a vote in the Kansas House on a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution, conceding they didn't yet have the votes to get it through the GOP-controlled Legislature and onto the ballot.

The House had been scheduled to vote Friday morning, but House Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch, a Republican from northeast Kansas, told fellow GOP members during a pre-vote meeting to “hang loose” and that the House could go in and out of session multiple times before a vote occurs. That would give GOP leaders time to meet with lawmakers individually to try to win over any who are reluctant.

The proposed amendment would overturn a Kansas Supreme Court decision last year declaring access to abortion a “fundamental” right under the state's Bill of Rights. The measure would declare that the constitution doesn't secure a right to abortion and allow lawmakers to enact restrictions as they have in the past.

The Senate approved the measure last week, and the House gave it first-round approval Thursday, but supporters needed a two-thirds majority in the House, or 84 of 125 votes, for it to pass and go on the August primary ballot. They were four votes short in Thursday's vote, and House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., a Kansas City-area Republican, acknowledged that they were still trying to find the last few yeses.

“We're still talking to folks and seeing what they want do,” he said.

Supporters of the measure argue that they're simply trying to return Kansas to the status quo before the state Supreme Court's decision. They said the decision could spur challenges to a raft of regulations that lawmakers enacted over the past decade under Republican governors before Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, an abortion rights supporter, took office last year.

But abortion rights advocates have argued that the amendment is a step toward allowing GOP lawmakers to push for an outright ban if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion across the nation.

Republicans have exactly 84 votes in the House, but four GOP members broke with the party to vote against the proposed amendment Thursday. GOP leaders also believe as many as half a dozen Democrats in relatively conservative districts might vote for a proposed amendment, but House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, of Wichita, said he believes all 41 Democrats will vote no.

The proposed amendment would allow legislators to regulate abortions even in cases of rape and incest or when a woman's life is in danger, “to the extent permitted” by federal court decisions. Critics have called that language extreme.

Democrats were confident enough Friday morning not to hold a pre-vote meeting and they were not surprised by Republicans' decision to hold off on a vote.

“These are pretty obvious maneuvers,” said Rep. Valdenia Winn, a Kansas City, Kansas, Democrat who supports abortion rights.

GOP leaders said they were determined to have the vote Friday — even if they had to keep the House in session into the night.

“We're going to get the votes, get this thing done today,” Finch told his colleagues.

On the statewide ballot, a simple majority of voters would change the state constitution. Anti-abortion groups argue that the question is less likely to get “lost” in the August primary than on the November ballot, with the presidential election. The smaller primary election also skews more conservative, giving them a better chance of prevailing.

And some moderate Republicans have had misgivings about an August vote, fearing a surge in conservative turnout on the GOP side would cost them legislative races. Ryckman acknowledged that the timing of the statewide vote is an issue for some lawmakers, as well as the language.

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Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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