‘Value Them Both’ – Support Kansas’ Pro-Life Constitutional Amendment

Kansans have the opportunity to protect life in their state on August 2. The “Value Them Both Constitutional Amendment” would amend Bill of Rights of the Kansas Constitution to protect life and to keep state taxpayer money from going to abortion providers.

Value Them Both:

Stops painful, late-term abortions and protects other limits on the abortion industry.
Reverses the 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that created a nearly unlimited “right” to abortion.
Safeguards laws that protect and help women and babies.
Takes steps to rein in the abortion industry.

The amendment adds a section to the constitution that begins:

22. Regulation of abortion. Because Kansans value both women and children, the constitution of the state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion.

Here’s why the measure is necessary:

Beginning in 1997, the Kansas Legislature began passing common sense laws such as requiring a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion; having doctors offer medical information about abortion methods, risks and alternatives; and banning late-term and partial-birth abortions.

The state restricted funds to Planned Parenthood; established two-parent consent for abortions on minors; passed a measure giving women the option to view and receive a copy of a sonogram; and banned abortions at 22 weeks gestation, with limited exceptions, through the “Pain-capable Unborn Child Protection Act.”

In 2015, Kansas passed the “Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act” (SB 95), prohibiting these abortions, unless they were necessary to protect the life of the mother, effectively shutting down these horrific types of abortions, generally used after 14 weeks gestation.

The legislation was contested in court, and in 2019, the Kansas Supreme Court suddenly found a previously unknown constitutional “right to abortion” in the state’s 1859 constitution.

They ruled that “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” in the state constitution, somehow also meant personal autonomy, human dignity, bodily integrity and self-determination – so that women could abort their children.

That judicial overreach threatened all of the state’s attempts to protect life, as every limit on abortion was “presumed unconstitutional.”

Now, with the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision, and with this constitutional amendment, citizens of Kansas can say, “No. There is no such ‘right to abortion’ in our state constitution.”

The measure continues by explaining that the people – not unelected state judges, through elected representatives, have the power to pass laws regulating abortion in Kansas.

The Value Them Both Constitutional Amendment explains this:

To the extent permitted by the constitution of the United States, the people, through their elected state representatives and state senators, may pass laws regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or circumstances of necessity to save the life of the mother.

Kansans who vote YES for Value Them Both will be protecting life in their state, but the vote has ramifications for the rest of the country.

When the Daily Citizen spoke with Brittany Jones, Kansas Family Voice’s director of policy and engagement, she told us:

You may think this issue doesn’t matter to you because you don’t live in Kansas – but it does. The abortion industry is using Kansas as a test case to force pro-life states to become safe havens for abortion. If it can happen in Kansas, it can happen in other states, so we have to take a stand now.

If you are concerned about preborn lives – in Kansas and across the nation, you can visit ValueThemBoth.com to learn how you can give financial support, sign up to volunteer, or promote Value Them Both at Kansas church’s.