Over 40 million unborn American children have been killed in the 35 years since Roe v. Wade became the law of the land. I firmly believe that many of the most serious societal problems which we face in this country stem from the Culture of Death spawned by Roe, the cheapening of human life in all its forms – abortion, infanticide, soaring homicide and violent crime rates, euthanasia and mercy killings. Kansas has earned the title of “Late-Term Abortion Capital” of the nation. I will work to end that dubious distinction and restore a Culture of Life to Kansas.
I support new legislation in Kansas that would more clearly define what constitutes a “late term abortion,” and what medical findings and legal protections must be in place before such a procedure can be performed, including in particular certification by two physicians totally independent of the abortion provider and each other that such a procedure was medically necessary to preserve the life of the mother. I also support additional safeguards to ensure that no woman in Kansas is coerced into having an abortion; that any woman considering an abortion be given the opportunity, at her request, to view an ultrasound of the fetus before making her decision, and that notice of such a right be clearly posted in the abortion provider’s office; that minors receive parental consent before obtaining an abortion at any stage of development; and that a woman’s spouse, or a minor’s parents, would have broad leeway to sue practitioners who performed an abortion on their spouse or minor child, respectively, where they had reason to believe such an abortion violated State law.
More fundamentally, I believe that Roe v. Wade will eventually be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, because it was wrongly decided on Constitutional grounds. In Roe, activist justices on the Court rewrote the Constitution to find therein a Federal right to privacy, and by extension abortion, that is nowhere explicitly granted or set forth in the Constitution, and in doing so, it abrogated an explicit provision of the Constitution, the 10th Amendment, which reserves to the states or the people all powers not expressly granted to the Federal Government, or expressly prohibited to the States. Legally, abortion is a states’ rights issue, and should be reserved to the individual states or their citizens to decide, state by state.
It is a common misconception that overturning Roe v. Wade will make all abortions illegal in the United States; it will not. The power to make determinations on the issue will thereafter properly revert to the individual states and their citizens. At that point, it will be up to the people of the State of Kansas, by plebiscite or through their elected representatives in the Legislature, to decide whether and to what extent abortion will remain legal in Kansas. Because it has been scientifically established that the fetus in the womb is human life from the moment of conception, I believe it is deserving of legal protection. Therefore, once Roe v. Wade is overturned, I would support legislation making all abortions in Kansas, at any stage of gestation, illegal, except where necessary to preserve the life of the mother, as certified by two independent physicians who will not participate in the abortion procedure.
