Kansas is slated to treat preborn children as dependents under the law, require education about fetal development in public schools and continue funding pro-life pregnancy centers after the Republican-controlled state Legislature overrode several gubernatorial vetoes last week.
The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of three bills last Thursday. The first bill, House Bill 2062, provides child support to children from the date of conception and declares that an unborn child “shall be recognized as a dependent and shall be allowed a personal exemption of $2,320.” The exemption also applies to babies who are stillborn.
The Kansas House of Representatives voted 87-38 last Thursday to override Kelly’s veto of House Bill 2062 while the Kansas Senate overrode Kelly’s veto in a 31-9 vote that same day. The votes in both chambers fell largely along party lines, with all support coming from Republicans and most opposition coming from Democrats. One Republican joined Democrats in opposing the veto override.
Kelly addressed her veto of the legislation in a statement last Wednesday. “This bill is yet another attempt by special interest groups and extremist lawmakers to ignore the will of Kansans and insert themselves into the lives of those making private medical decisions. It is a place where the Legislature has become all too comfortable — particularly for those who espouse freedom from government overreach,” she wrote.
“The motives behind this bill are clear,” Kelly added. “Instead of helping pregnant women and families, the Legislature chose to pass a bill that connects the issue to a woman’s constitutional rights. This bill is a dismissal of the will of the majority of Kansans who voted overwhelmingly in 2022 to keep politicians out of the private medical decisions made between a woman and her doctor.”
The second bill, House Bill 2382, requires “any school district that offers any course or other instruction that addresses human growth, human development or human sexuality” to show students “a presentation of a high-quality, computer-generated animation or high-definition ultrasound of at least three minutes in duration that shows the development of the brain, heart and other vital organs in early human fetal development.”
The House voted 84-41 and the Senate voted 31-9 to override Kelly’s veto of the measure, which mirrors legislation passed in Idaho and Tennessee. The veto override fell largely along party lines, although four Republicans in the House joined Democrats to oppose the override.
In her veto message, Kelly condemned the bill as “convoluted, manipulative, and wrong for a number of reasons.” She contended that it falls short of the goal to provide “high-quality, relevant, researched, and age-appropriate educational experiences free from ideological prejudice.”
“It undermines the authority of the Kansas State Board of Education and local school boards, who are vested with the duty and responsibility to set and enforce curricula for our schools, no matter the subject,” she maintained. “The Board, teachers, and administrators put in significant effort to create curricula and lesson plans. This legislation undermines their autonomy and replaces the expertise of trained professionals with the desires of special interest groups and the politicians that enable them.”
According to Kelly, “This bill fails to establish standards to ensure the information included in the program is evidence-based. But it is not surprising, as the goal of this bill is not to educate developing and impressionable young minds — it is to push a specific agenda without proper research to back it up.”
The third bill, Senate Bill 125, was signed into law by Kelly. However, she issued line item vetoes of several aspects of the measure, including a provision setting aside $3 million for the state’s pregnancy compassion awareness program. The program in question works to “enhance and increase resources that promote childbirth instead of abortion to women facing unplanned pregnancies and to offer a full range of services, including pregnancy support centers, adoption assistance and maternity homes.”
Examples of such resources include mental health services, counseling, parenting classes, job training and the provision of car seats, cribs, maternity clothes, diapers, infant formula and other material items. The bill makes the services available to mothers of children from the beginning of their pregnancy through 24 months after they give birth. It stresses that money cannot “be used to perform, induce, assist in the performing or inducing of or refer for abortions” or granted to organizations that do so.
In her veto message, Kelly claimed that “housing the pregnancy crisis center program in the Office of the State Treasurer is inappropriate and simply politically motivated.”
Kelly further argued that “Kansas women facing unplanned pregnancies deserve meaningful support from medical professionals who can provide evidence-based guidance, not from largely unregulated pregnancy resource centers.”
The House voted 88-34 to override the line item veto while the Senate voted 30-10 to do the same. One Senate Republican joined with Democrats to oppose overriding the line item veto, while the vote in the House saw three Democrats joining Republicans to support the veto override and three Republicans joining Democrats in opposing it.
