(Updated to include comments from Senate majority leader and Planned Parenthood president)
Abortion opponents’ drive to overturn a historic state Supreme Court decision that found the right to an abortion is embedded in the state constitution came up just short of passage in the Kansas House on Friday afternoon.
The House voted 80-43 for the proposed constitutional amendment, but it was short of the 84 votes needed to pass and ultimately defeated.
The vote immediately set off threats to dump the proposed Medicaid expansion bill, which only weeks ago seemed headed for passage after Gov. Laura Kelly and Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning agreed on a compromise plan.
The abortion vote culminated a more than five-hour standoff Friday when the chamber was locked down as House leadership tried to round up the votes needed to pass the constitutional amendment.
In the end, the amendment failed to gain the support of several moderate Republicans who wanted the amendment placed on the November ballot when there would be higher turnout.
“The people of Kansas lost today,” House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr. said as the debate neared an end.
“They lost the right to vote on the direction of our state’s future,” he said. “They lost their ability to exercise the state’s system of judicial checks and balances.
“Today’s vote sets our state down a disappointing path, one where the people have no say about whether Kansas will be a pro-life or a pro-choice state.”
The defeat of the amendment now casts a shadow over efforts to expand Medicaid in Kansas, a top priority for the Democratic governor.
Senate President Susan Wagle is already signaling she will not run the Medicaid expansion bill in her chamber until the abortion amendment is sent to the voters.
The bill is set to be worked in a Senate committee next week. Even if it passes out, it will not be considered on the floor, her office said.
“This vote just completely changed the course of the 2020 legislative session,” Wagle said in a statement. “The Senate will not take up Medicaid expansion without the passage of the Value Them Both Amendment.”
Meanwhile, Wagle sent all 11 House bills and two Senate health-related bills back to committee as a way of keeping them from being amended to include Medicaid expansion.
There are also now questions about whether the Senate will bottle up all pending House bills in the aftermath of Friday’s vote.
Wagle’s comment opened a split with Denning, who disassociated himself from her remarks.
“To be clear, the actions and statements made by Senate President Wagle today were without my input and in no way reflect the session plans of my office,” Denning posted on Twitter Friday night.
“I believe in the legislative process,” he tweeted. “Her statements are obstructive and not how we should be governing.”
Hours before the final vote, Kansans for Life sent out a statement calling on the Legislature to stop work on the Medicaid expansion bill.
The organization is worried that Medicaid expansion could lead to taxpayer-subsidized abortions.
“Passing the Value Them Both Amendment to the Kansas Constitution is the only way to ensure expansion does not turn into a new public funding stream for the abortion industry,” Jeanne Gawdun, KFL’s lobbyist.
Supporters of Medicaid expansion quickly responded.
“The constitutional amendment on abortion and Medicaid expansion are two very separate issues. It’s unfortunate that the two have become tangled together,” said April Holman, executive director of Alliance for a Healthy Kansas.
“The bottom line is that Medicaid expansion saves lives,” she said.
“By expanding access to Medicaid, we can ensure that tens of thousands of Kansans have access to life-saving measures such as cancer screenings, medications, mental health care and preventive medicine.”
The amendment would have given lawmakers the right to regulate abortion despite the state Supreme Court’s ruling, which set a higher judicial standard for evaluating abortion regulations passed by the Legislature.
Abortion opponents contended that the court’s decision threatened a series of abortion limits pass by the Legislature in the last decade, including clinic regulations that have been blocked in court since 2011.
Opponents stopped the amendment, arguing that it set up the possibility that the Legislature would try to ban the procedure if Roe v. Wade was overturned.
“Abortion care is a human right — period. The legislature today ensured Kansans can continue to make their own health care decisions,” said Brandon J. Hill, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
“Politicians and ideology should never stand between a patient and their doctor, and Planned Parenthood is proud to provide comprehensive care in a state founded on protecting fundamental freedoms.”
Opponents said the amendment would allow lawmakers to ban abortion outright without any exceptions.
They cited a passage in the amendment that says the Legislature “may pass laws regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, in circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or when necessary to save the life of the mother.”
Democratic state Rep. Jeff Pittman said it was unfair to women to change the law on abortion without protecting at a minimum the victims of rape and incest or to save the life of a mother.
Republican state Rep. Don Hineman voted against the amendment despite voting against abortion rights in the past.
He said his vote against the amendment was a recognition that it should be voted on in the fall.
“Amending the state constitution is a matter of utmost importance,” he said. “It’s imperative that maximum citizen input be achieved. That can best be obtained in a November election when voter turnout is always at its highest.
“To do otherwise raises questions about the sincerity of the call to let the people decide,” he said.
“This should not and cannot be the end of this discussion,” he said. “Options remain. We can still regroup and put the measure on the November ballot.”
Republican state Rep. Jan Kessinger also voted against the amendment, saying it wasn’t the best way to reduce abortions.
“The number of abortions in Kanas is too high,” he said. “Even if this resolution leads to a complete ban on abortion, it will not stop abortion.”
He said low-cost birth control is the better solution for reducing unplanned pregnancies.
“I respect the rights of women and I vote, ‘no,'” he said.
The vote on Friday capped of a week of feverish lobbying on the issue, with the governor saying the measure could hurt the state’s ability to recruit businesses.
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran and Congressman Roger Marshall phoned lawmakers on Wednesday urging them to support the amendment.
Marshall also signed a letter with Republican Congressmen Ron Estes and Steve Watkins asking lawmakers to support the bill.
Meanwhile, Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids had been campaigning against the bill.
On Thursday, Davids posted a video on Twitter telling viewers the amendment is a “political attack on our fundamental rights that will set Kansas back decades.”
She urged her supporters to call their representative before the House convened on Friday to take a final vote on the amendment.
After the vote, Davids tweeted:
“It failed! Thank you to all the brave #ksleg members who stood up for our reproductive freedom. This fight isn’t over — but we celebrate today.”
