Kansas abortion-rights activists: Breaking GOP supermajority at Statehouse could safeguard access

Nicole Revenaugh does membership outreach for Kansas Women Attorneys for Freedom at the Kansas Bar Association's annual meeting in June 2023. (Kansas Women Attorneys for Freedom photo)

TOPEKA — Kansans’ right to an abortion is not enshrined in the state constitution, which leaves the door open for state politicians to restrict their access to the procedure. That means abortion remains on the ballot, despite voters’ 2022 rejection of the “Value Them Both” amendment.

“Right now, the right to abortion in Kansas is protected by the right to privacy in Kansas,” said Adina Morse, an attorney based in Lawrence. “We need a constitutional amendment that says all people, men and women, can control their own bodies, and that includes access to appropriate health care, to whatever reproductive health care is necessary.”

Morse and Nicole Revenaugh are both part of Kansas Women Attorneys for Freedom, a group that formed around the 2022 amendment but which continues to fight for abortion access today. Revenaugh says that Kansans are still in “defeatist mode” because the right to an abortion is not entirely protected.

Enshrining the right would make it explicitly and officially protected. Lawmakers have introduced, and in some cases passed, legislation that affects a Kansans’ right to abortion. One required medical providers to tell people who got an abortion they could take a pill to reverse it if they changed their mind — which is misinformation. Enforcement of that law was indefinitely delayed .

“It’s a tremendous waste of financial resources,” Revenaugh said. “They’re wasting resources on issues that really, Kansans don’t care about, or we’ve already spoken on in large numbers.”

An “abortion survey” law currently being challenged requires abortion providers to ask abortion seekers a series of invasive questions — including why they’re seeking an abortion.

“They’re humiliating, and degrading. And they risk women’s lives,” Morse said. “I want to reiterate: We are not safe. Abortion is not safe in Kansas because of what the Legislature keeps doing. And make no mistake, they intend to keep doing it.”

The abortion survey bill was vetoed by Gov. Laura Kelly, but the House and Senate overrode her. Republicans have a supermajority at the Statehouse, meaning that even if the Democratic governor vetoes a bill it can forced into law.

“One of the most important ways we can dissuade that behavior is getting rid of the supermajority,” Revenaugh said. “Which is only flipping a few seats, and it’s not flipping Republican to Democrats, it’s moderates.”

Revenaugh and Morse both believe that ending the supermajority would force GOP lawmakers to take a different approach. They say it would force them to see that bills “on the fringe” would not eventually become law, which would refocus the session.

In 2022, the Kansas Women Attorneys for Freedom drained its bank account with donations toward defeating the “Value Them Both” amendment. Members did door-to-door canvassing, the “nitty gritty work” that gets things done, Revenaugh said. Their 2024 efforts are focused on educating their members on talking to undecided voters.

“I know it’s exhausting for folks to hear that this is the most important election. No, now this is the most important election. No, you have to participate or else,” Revenaugh said. “The ‘or else’ is getting more and more dire and dangerous.”

Kansans have until Oct. 15 to register to vote in the November election .