By Rachel Whitten
April 12, 2011

(KansasReporter) TOPEKA, Kan. – Supporters of the pro-life movement crowded the statehouse Tuesday to watch Gov. Sam Brownback sign the first law limiting abortion in over 13 years.

Kansas will now restrict abortions after 22 weeks gestation because of an unborn child’s ability to feel pain, and also require two parents to give consent if their underage daughter has an abortion.

The signed bills also contain provisions that ensure stricter reporting of late-term abortions. Additionally, 24 hours before the procedure, women will receive information saying the abortion will “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.” The legislation also replaces all references to “fetus,” in state statute, changing it to “unborn child.”

In the last decade, anti-abortion legislators voted to approve measures restricting the termination of pregnancies, only to have them vetoed once they arrived at the governor’s desk. Subsequent veto override attempts often fell short by one vote.

Gov. Sam Brownback signs anti-abortion legislation on the second floor of the Kansas capitol building Tuesday, flanked by supportive lawmakers, lobbyists and state officials.

Lawmakers then introduced and approved House Bill 2218, the fetal pain bill, on a 91-30 vote in the House and a 24-15 vote in the Senate. The parental consent legislation, House Bill 2035 gained approval on a 96-25 vote in the House and a 24-15 vote in the Senate.

“Both these bills reflect the culture of life that is being embraced all across Kansas,” Brownback said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon. “They represent a mainstream, bi-partisan and common sense approach to a divisive issue.”

But the legislation did not pass without debate and concerns brought by lawmakers who support abortion rights.  

Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Democrat from Topeka, took issue during floor debate last month with the requirement that for a minor to have an abortion, she has to have notarized consent from both parents, or consent from the custodial parent in the case of divorce or separation. Hensley said that constitutes an invasion of privacy by bringing in one more person –a notary public—into the situation.

His Democratic colleagues, such as Sen. David Haley from Kansas City also disputed the restriction of abortion based on an unborn child’s ability to feel pain.

“Changing it in statute doesn’t make it science,” Haley said in floor debate last month.

But anti-abortion activists point to the medical practice of giving anesthesia to a fetus if it has surgery while still in its mother’s womb.

“It’s a pain issue, it’s a control issue, as far as being able to hold the child steady, I think that’s well established in scientific fact,” Brownback said.

The last major anti-abortion legislation to come out of the statehouse was during the 1998 session in which former Rep. Phill Kline spearheaded a bill to place restrictions on late-term abortions.

In 2009, former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed a law which requires that women receive information such as adoption alternatives and the availability of ultrasound before undergoing the abortion. However that law, called A Women’s Right to Know Act, does not restrict abortions.

Anti-abortion advocates are still hoping to get two other measures restricting abortion up for a vote before the legislative session ends in May. One would require that abortion clinics have an operating license from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Another would exclude abortion coverage from health insurance plans unless it’s necessary to preserve the life of the mother.

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