Abortion

Kansans For Life: “We Have No Plaque On Our Wall” Saying Our Goal Is To Make The State Abortion-Free

With the addition of new TRAP laws, conscience clauses and bans on allowing schools to teach how to provide abortions, Kansas has come very close to being an abortion-free state. Anti-choice advocates say that's the idea.

Kansas’s new TRAP law nearly closed every clinic in the state. Their “conscience” bill allows pharmacists to refuse both to fill prescriptions for contraceptive methods, but also to refuse to refer a customer needing a prescription to another pharmacist. And one law proposing to take “no taxpayer funding for abortion” to ridiculous extremes nearly closed the basic OB-GYN training program of the state university, and would have cost the school its medical accreditation.

Is Kansas about to become an abortion-free state? That’s the goal, according to Kansans For Life legislative director Kathy Ostrowski. Not that they are shouting it from the rooftops, however.

Via The Pitch:

Pitch: Would a pharmacist really be sued for [complications after filling a Plan B prescription]? Has that ever happened?

Ostrowski: Who knows? Look, the irritation to us is that we’re a pro-life, anti-abortion organization. In Kansas, an abortion is a drug or procedure given to someone known to be pregnant. The line between the chemical and the surgical is blurred. Plan B is maybe not an abortion per se, but it’s part of a chemical reproductive cartel that’s bumping up against what we’re trying to do as a pro-life group.

Pitch: Is the ultimate goal of Kansans for Life for Kansas to be the first state in the union where abortion is illegal?

Orstrowski: We have no plaque on our wall that says that. We’re trying to be a consistent pathway that educates people that abortion is harmful, that it kills the next generation, and that it’s harmful to women. The Supreme Court doesn’t allow states to have discussions like that. They’ve closed down normal process on that. We feel that the Supreme Court will eventually change its mind, just like it did when it said that black people were three-fifths of a person. We’re trying to create a culture of life. We want a society where abortion is not just illegal but unthinkable.

Could the state beat out Mississippi to be the first not to provide abortions within the border? According to the Pitch, based on the legislation that will pop back up in 2013, it’s going to give it a good shot.