Value Them Both Amendment Introduced for 2021 Legislative Session

January 12
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Contact: Robert Noland (719)308-2822
Media@familypolicyalliance.com

Value Them Both Amendment Introduced for 2021 Legislative Session

 

Topeka: The Value Them Both Amendment to the Kansas Constitution, which safeguards women and babies from what will soon be an unregulated abortion industry, has been reintroduced for the legislature’s consideration in 2021. The amendment is the people’s response to the Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt ruling which threatens all existing limits on the abortion industry in Kansas.

Value Them Both was reintroduced this session by key legislators and a coalition of organizations that includes the Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, the Kansas Catholic Conference (KCC), Concerned Women for America of Kansas (CWA) and Kansans for Life (KFL). The Amendment was narrowly blocked from passage in 2020, but many who opposed the Amendment were defeated at the ballot box.

Statements from Value Them Both supporters:

“Unlimited abortion hurts women and babies. With the legal underpinning for laws that permit the regulation abortion removed, action must be taken to safeguard women and babies from an unlimited abortion industry. This Amendment will restore the foundation for basic regulations to be placed around the abortion industry,” said Brittany Jones, Esq., Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, Director of Advocacy.

“Kansans want limits on the abortion industry and Value Them Both restores their voice in the public process. They sent a historic number of pro-life legislators to join those who championed and supported this resolution last year,” stated Jeanne Gawdun, KFL Director of Government Relations.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Kellie Warren (R-Leawood) agreed. “Every current regulation on the abortion industry was approved with bi-partisan support. Kansans are not extreme people and do not want an unlimited abortion industry.”

Representative Susan Humphries (R-Wichita) added, “The abortion industry has not been trustworthy in the past and there is no reason to believe it will be trustworthy in the future. Value Them Both is common sense, compassionate and allows for oversight.”

“The idea that working families may have their hard-earned tax dollars used for abortion is unconscionable. Value Them Both sets a positive vision for Kansas, not the dark outlook of an unlimited abortion industry,” stated Senator Molly Baumgardner (R-Louisburg).

“No Kansan wants our state to be a destination for dismemberment and late-term abortions,” said Representative Tory Arnberger (R-Great Bend), House Federal and State Affairs Vice-Chair.

The KCC’s Jeanette Pryor said that, “Pregnant middle school girls need advice from their loving moms and pediatricians, not traveling abortionists. Value Them Both guarantees parents not strangers guide their daughters.”

Barbara Saldivar of CWA concluded, “It’s time to take this to the people and stop late-term and taxpayer funded abortion from coming to Kansas.”

Value Them Both will be introduced in both the Kansas House and Senate, and upon referral to committees, scheduled for hearings. Once it passes the legislature with a 2/3rd majority in each chamber, it will be put on the ballot for a vote of the people.

The language of the Value Them Both Amendment, which deals with regulation of abortion, reads as written as follows:

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. 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.

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