“Just based on the bill passing on an 86-36 margin in the House to begin with and also with overwhelming support in the Senate, we expect that the Kansas Legislature will do the right thing here and make this the law in Kansas,” Kelsey Pritchard, director of state public affairs at Susan B. Anthony List, told CNA.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, where Republicans hold only very slim majorities, Hobbs’ veto essentially spells doom for the born-alive bill.
Hobbs called the bill an attempt to interfere with reproductive rights and said her veto was making good on a campaign promise to oppose all pro-life legislation.
“It’s simply not the state’s role to make such difficult medical decisions for patients. As a candidate, I promised to veto any bill that interferes with the reproductive rights of Arizonans. As governor, I intend to make good on that promise,” Hobbs said in an official statement.
“It’s just really disturbing for us to see [Democrats] and the abortion industry attempt to erase a whole group of people,” Pritchard said.
“People have been quoted in articles about this bill saying that it’s fantasy, things don’t happen, … [meanwhile] the Abortion Survivors Network, located in the Kansas City area, is right there; hundreds of people are a part of that network and the way the abortion [industry] is trying to erase these individuals who persevere daily over the trauma, over the complications, over pain,” Pritchard said. “It’s just appalling and it’s really all in the name of trying to avoid bad PR so that their profit margins aren’t affected, and I think that we should all be concerned, as Americans, about how they’re trying to dehumanize this group of people.”
Peter Pinedo is a DC Correspondent for CNA. A graduate of Franciscan University, Peter previously worked for Texas Right to Life. He is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve.