Topeka, KS – Pro-life lawmakers are drafting legislation that would require that abortionists report the actual reasons for abortions after 22 weeks. The bill will also allow women or the women’s families to sue abortionists for doing the risky abortions for reasons not allowable by law.
The nation’s largest late-term abortion clinic once operated in Wichita, Kansas, where late-second and third trimester abortions occurred weekly. It was discovered during an investigation that such abortions were done for frivolous mental health reasons. The state has no record of any late-term abortions being done to save the mother’s life or even protect her physical health.
Kansas law specifically prohibits abortions after viability unless the mother’s life is threatened or she risks “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function. That law has been interpreted to include mental health risks as long as the mental health risk poses the same “substantial and irreversible impairment.”
Dr. Paul McHugh, an expert in Psychiatry from Johns Hopkins University, reviewed a number of records from that late-term clinic for the State Attorney General’s Office. He indicated that some late-term abortions were done for petty reasons such as the women would not be able to attend rock concerts, rodeos, or buy a new computer if they continued their pregnancies. Some records indicated that abortions in the latest term of pregnancy were done for a single episode of depression, a condition that is reversible. Abortions for such reasons are considered to be illegal.
“The new law would hold abortionists accountable by requiring them to report the exact reason for the abortion and would likely bring late abortions for frivolous reasons to an end,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “With the closure of the Wichita abortion clinic last year, there is currently no abortionist in Kansas that will do abortions after viability. This law will help to keep it that way.”
