Press Release

Topeka, Kan. – 2/7/2012 -- A state constitutional amendment (HCR 5029), proposed by 25 House lawmakers, that guarantees the inalienable right to life of every human being at every age has been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee by Speaker Mike O’Neal. Personhood Kansas, the coalition of pro-life citizens and organizations backing the measure, reports that Chairman Rep. Lance Kinzer is refusing to schedule the measure for a hearing.

Recently, O’Neal told the Topeka Capital-Journal that 2011 was “a very good year” for the Kansas pro-life movement. “I'm not looking for anything else to add to a very ambitious agenda,” he said. Likewise, Kinzer expressed his opposition to the measure, telling the AP, "There are some other areas where we can get a real-world impact quicker.”

One law intended to have such an impact was last year’s Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (HB2218) which limits abortions to those committed against preborn babies younger than 22 weeks old. The most recent statistics published by the Kansas Health Department show that in 2010, before the measure was enacted, 8,338 children lost their lives to abortion. Of these, 8,337 were committed before the new 22 week legal barrier.

Other bills passed into law last session dealing with the issues of clinic licensing, abortion reporting, and the defunding of Planned Parenthood are tied up in court. House Minority Leader Paul Davis told the Capital-Journal, "People are just tired of us spending a lot of time debating abortion.”

“Davis is right. Let’s have this out. Do preborn babies have a God-given right to life or not?” said Personhood Kansas Committee Chairman Bruce Garren.

On record, Kinzer informed Garren that he intends to block the measure in committee because, he said, “It will not save a single baby’s life” and “it will strengthen rather than weaken the legal underpinnings of Roe [v. Wade].”

Kinzer’s statement runs counter to the opinion of the majority of pro-life organizations and pro-life constitutional law attorneys such as Robert J. Muise, Esq. of the Thomas More Law Center who wrote of the personhood strategy:

“Thus, in many respects, the best case to present to the Court is one in which a state is seeking to protect human life as a matter of state constitutional law. For a state to amend its constitution to protect life speaks volumes to the Court. And it is perhaps the best case scenario to tip the balance of the scale with Justice Kennedy… [I]t is a fundamental principle of law that when there is no clear majority opinion in the Court, the holding of the Court is based on the narrowest grounds for the decision… It borders on the ridiculous to take a position that Justice Kennedy—a National Right to Life Committee endorsed judicial nominee who opposed abortion but changed his vote only at the 11th hour in Casey…would suddenly transmogrify into an abortion-loving crony of Justice Ginsburg. Indeed, it is far more likely that Justice Kennedy would follow the Chief Justice and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito—his closer companions—and uphold the proposed amendment, reversing Roe.”

“Across America, pro-lifers agree that personhood is the key to ending abortion, and they believe that now is the opportune time to pursue the equal protection of every person,” explained Garren. “The state’s abortionists may have little to worry about this session unless the people of Kansas demand a vote on this.”

Kansans for Life also announced last week that they intend to back the Life Begins at Conception Act (HB 2579), a measure the Kansas legislative website appropriately calls a “legislative declaration that life begins at conception.” The bill includes language limiting its scope, rendering it incapable of presenting a challenge to Roe v. Wade or having any effect on Kansas abortion law, and therefore not capable of saving a single baby’s life.

“We are saddened and disappointed that Kansans for Life and a few key players in the legislature have decided to take personhood off the table and design a bill to represent a legitimate pro-life effort,” continued Garren. “The new proposal is an imitation that further expands the authority of the courts and subjugates the will of the people of Kansas to an all too powerful judiciary.”

A new Kansas abortion law will close one of the state's three remaining abortion facilities and is likely to force a second to discontinue providing surgical abortions. The Aid for Women clinic in Kansas City was denied a license by the state health department last week based on information obtained from their application, and the director of the second clinic in Overland Park was quoted saying, "We're doomed."

However, Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri President, Peter Brownlie, is optimistic following a 20-hour inspection of the organization's Overland Park location. “The findings of the inspection indicate we will be in full compliance with the abortion facility license regulations when they go into effect on July 1," stated Brownlie. “Thus, I believe we should be granted a license."

Personhood Kansas weighed in on the developments. "The legislature has passed every abortion regulation imaginable. No baby is safe from the grasp of the abortionists until the personhood of every human being is affirmed by law," explained Committee Chairperson, Bruce Garren.

Meanwhile, Mila Means, a family practitioner who has been training to perform abortions at the Aid for Women clinic, revealed plans last week to form a non-profit for the purposes of raising a million dollars and opening a new abortion facility in Wichita. "The requirements are not discouraging," she said. "There are so many redundancies that are not important for the woman's safety that are built into this bill specifically to deny access, and that really makes me angry. That probably reinforced my decision to keep working in this direction."

The Kansas National Organization for Women hosted an event described as a "community discussion" at an area church on Friday to kick off Mean's fundraising campaign. "I want people to know there are still those of us still going forward to try and keep this legal and safe procedure out there for the women who really need it," said Means. "I will continue to work on this as a goal." Pro-abortion author and panelist, Stephen Singular, chimed in, "It's time to start pushing back. I think it's the only thing the other side will understand."

Similarly, a law enacted last year in Nebraska that restricts abortion after 20 weeks based on the capacity of preborn children to feel pain forced notorious abortionist, Leroy Carhart, to leave the state for the less restrictive laws of Maryland. The move prompted Planned Parenthood of the Heartland to announce their intentions to open six new locations throughout the state.

"Laws that regulate abortion may temporarily disable the abortion industry, but they do not end it. Anyone with the resources to do so can and will continue to kill children in our state," continued Garren. "The people of Kansas deserve to have their voices heard, and we renew our call to recognize the God-given and inalienable rights of the preborn."

Personhood Kansas is a grassroots coalition of local pro-life citizens and organizations campaigning for an amendment to the Kansas Constitution recognizing the legal personhood rights of every human being.

February 23rd, 2011 - Kansas State Representative Randy Garber of Sabetha has confirmed plans to introduce an amendment to Section 1 of the Kansas Bill of Rights. Section 1 ensures the "equal and inalienable natural rights" including "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The amendment language, recently approved by the Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes, will recognize the personhood of every human being by incorporating into the text a guarantee of "the inalienable rights, equal protection and due process of law of every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being, including fertilization."

Garber's Personhood Amendment is the only proposal in the new legislature that would end the practice of abortion throughout the state and recognize "the right to life of every human being irrespective of age, race, gender, health, function, condition of dependency, including physical or mental dependency, or method of reproduction."

"I am proud to carry the personhood banner in the Kansas Legislature, and I feel that God has put me here to take a stand for the unborn. If we do not speak for them, who will?" said Garber. "I will continue to work with any organization attempting to end abortion. I hope churches will unite under personhood and make their collective voices heard."

If approved by the legislature, Kansas residents would have an opportunity to vote the measure into law in a referendum to be held during the next general election. Similar measures are being pursued in all 50 states. Amendments in Colorado have reached the ballot in both 2008 and 2010. Residents of Mississippi are set to vote on personhood this year.

A Personhood Amendment could trigger a constitutional challenge to Roe v. Wade. In the majority opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun famously wrote, "If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case [decriminalized abortion], of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment.” The Supreme Court has also asserted on numerous occasions that states have a "sovereign right to adopt in [their] Constitution[s] individual liberties more expansive than those conferred by the Federal Constitution.”

"The Kansas pro-life community applauds Rep. Garber for his courageous stand that every human being, no matter their age, is a person, inherently possessed with the God-given right to live and be free," said Keith Ashley of Personhood Kansas, a coalition of local pro-life organizations and citizens campaigning for the amendment. "The urgent need to act cannot be overstated. The lives and futures of countless Kansas children hang in the balance. The time has come for the good people of Kansas to stand up, be a voice for the voiceless, and end the deadly discrimination against the preborn."

Kansas Personhood Amendment Text: http://bit.ly/fuqhgU

Kansas Supports Personhood Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc4Tjvz1Atc

A new Kansas pro-life organization, Personhood Kansas, is seeking to partner with Christian and pro-life leaders, activists, and volunteers to form a statewide, grassroots coalition. The group was created for a single purpose—to conduct a campaign which results in the amending of the Kansas Constitution so that every child of God is protected by love and by law.

Similar groups have sprung up in several states after a ballot measure to amend Colorado’s constitution was defeated on Election Day 2008. “The effectiveness of the personhood coalition in Colorado has really been the inspiration. They were the first to demonstrate how close we are to recognizing the personhood of the preborn,” said Keith Ashley, Personhood Kansas Petition Drive Coordinator.

Personhood Kansas has advised the drafting of language that would recognize the right to personhood for all human beings from the biological beginning of human development. “Basic biology explains that human life begins at the moment of fertilization. This is the moment when we are no longer talking about functional parts of a woman and a man, but rather, we see a complete, genetically unique, living human being. Just like injustices in the past that relied on the ‘not all human beings are persons’ argument because of our differences such as race or gender, so too, denying the preborn full human personhood is discrimination based on an equally arbitrary human property—age,” explains Ashley.

The organization has started a statewide petition drive with the intent to deliver the responses to the state legislature. “A two-thirds majority of both legislative houses is needed to pass the amendment and that can be a rather challenging endeavor, so it is of the utmost importance that Kansans voice their desire to see this measure passed,” said Ashley.

The amendment process will then call for a referendum which will give Kansans an opportunity to vote the measure into law. “An advantage of a constitutional amendment is that it will be the supreme law of the state. But equally as advantageous is that the process will skip the pro-abortion Governor’s desk altogether and go directly to the people,” Ashley continues.

Personhood Kansas is calling on all Christian and pro-life leaders to get involved by announcing the petition drive and collecting signatures from their churches, parishes, organizations, and events, and by networking with leaders throughout the state. Future plans include a mass emailing and calling campaign, but the group is not advising citizens to wait for instructions. Rather, they are encouraging citizens to start contacting their legislators immediately to voice their support for human personhood in Kansas.

For more information regarding the personhood coalition in Kansas go to www.PersonhoodKansas.com or email them at info@personhoodkansas.com.