Kansas Abortion Law Fight Exposes ‘Pro-Life’ Democrats As Cowards

Kansas “pro-life” Democrats appear willing to cave to political pressure rather than vote their supposed conscience. That is the takeaway from the continuing battle at the state house over the proposed “Value Them Both” constitutional amendment that would overturn the Kansas Supreme Court’s extreme abortion decision in Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt.

The Hodes decision, handed down by the Kansas high court less than a year ago, declared that the state’s 150-year-old constitution includes a “fundamental right to abortion.” Even more devastating to pro-life Kansans, the state Supreme Court, in inventing this new constitutional right, adopted a standard of review more stringent than even the U.S. Supreme Court originally crafted in Roe v. Wade, which was later narrowed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The currently controlling Casey standard provides that, prior to an unborn child’s viability outside the womb, a state law cannot impose an “undue burden” on the “right” to abortion, meaning the law must not have the “purpose or effect” of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion.