Gawdun defends an incremental strategy to limit abortion, citing a 40% drop from 1999, when a peak of 12,400 abortions were performed. In 2018, that number had fallen to about 7,000.
Pat Goodson, founder of Right to Life of Kansas, disagrees with this incrementalist approach. He is among the school of pro-life advocates who say that a constitutional amendment regulating but not banning abortion is a step in the wrong direction, because it would effectively mean that the constitution allows abortion.
Goodson told a committee considering the amendment that it "denies the humanity of unborn humans and jeopardizes the rights of all humans."
In Kansas, abortion is not legal after the 22nd week of a pregnancy. Parents must be informed if their minor child is seeking an abortion, and they must give consent to the procedure.
Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas, a pro-abortion rights Democrat, won the 2018 election. She has the power to appoint justices to the seven-member Kansas Supreme Court. Her first nominee, Justice Evelyn Wilson, assumed office in December 2019. Wilson's nomination was opposed by pro-life groups.
State courts can declare legal abortion to be a right under the state constitution. Even if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and similar precedents that mandate legal abortion across the country, these decisions will likely create binding precedent at the state level.
Elise Higgins, vice president of the pro-abortion rights Kansas Abortion Fund, told the Associated Press that if voters pass a constitutional amendment rejecting a right to abortion, "then the minute Roe v. Wade is undermined or overturned, people in Kansas will lose their right to abortion, period."
Pro-life lawmakers in the Iowa legislature are also pushing for a constitutional amendment saying there is no right to abortion in the state constitution.
Alabama and West Virginia have already amended their constitutions to prevent state supreme courts from interpreting them to find a right to abortion. In 2020, Louisiana residents will vote whether to amend their constitution to clarify that does not recognize abortion as a right.