UPDATE: This bill passed and was signed into law on May 16, 2011. The bill will go into effect on July 1, 2011. We give thanks to everyone who called and wrote in support.
Topeka, KS – Earlier this month, the Kansas House took the first step in righting a wrong in Kansas that has cost innocent lives and propped up some of the most heinous abortion mills in the nation. By an overwhelming vote of 97-27, the House voted to approve common sense regulations for abortion clinics.
Now the bill goes to the Kansas Senate where it faces a tougher battle.
Four other times, similar clinic regulation bills passed with comfortable majorities in both the House and the Senate, only to be vetoed by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a rabid promoter of unrestricted abortion who now serves as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Currently there is no accountability for abortion clinics in Kansas. They are never inspected. There are no penalties for filthy conditions or unsafe practices.
That was more than evident when Operation Rescue bought the Central Women’s Services building in 2006 and forced the abortion mill to close. Discovered amidst the squalid conditions were business cards from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Those named on the business cards assured Operation Rescue that they had never inspected that clinic in the 23 years it was in operation.
At another abortion mill in Kansas City, pro-lifers obtained undercover photographs of filthy and unsafe conditions that revealed bloodstained carpeting in procedure rooms, aborted babies stored in the refrigerator next to staff lunches, and inadequate attempts to sterilize surgical equipment in a broken dishwasher next to an open toilet. That clinic also closed after public outcry forced the Kansas Board of Healing Arts to revoke abortionist Krishna Rajanna’s medical license – but not because of the conditions themselves.
Ambulances rushing women to emergency rooms were a routine sight. Operation Rescue documented those incidents along with the third-trimester abortion death of one patient, 19-year old Christin Gilbert. Herbert Hodes told a House legislative committee earlier this year that he thought five women had died from abortions in the last five years in Kansas, a statement from which he has backed away after Operation Rescue demanded that the Attorney General investigate that claim.
The political climate in Kansas under the previous administrations continued to place the lives and health of women at risk by shielding abortion clinics from having to comply with even the most basic health and safety rules.
But times have changed. There is a new administration that respects the lives and health of women and their babies. Now it is time to right the wrongs that have shed the blood of innocent children, landed countless women in the hospital, and put at least one young girl in the grave.
This new law would make abortion clinics accountable to the law and give the KDHE authority to close unsafe clinics. It would provide for two annual inspections, one of which would be unannounced. It would protect women from unscrupulous and predatory abortion practices. It would save lives.
We know that some abortion clinics would rather close than clean up, as was recently the case in Pennsylvania. There are two Kansas clinics that would have a hard time passing an inspection. If they were to close, that would leave only one abortion clinic in Kansas — and that one is the Planned Parenthood that is facing 107 criminal charges. Clinic regulations could very well put an end to abortion in Kansas!
The Kansas Legislature is currently in recess. The Abortion Clinic Regulations bill is expected to be debated on April 27, when the Senate reconvenes, with a vote to be taken that same day. During this recess, we have an opportunity to reach out to the Senators and let our voices be heard. Even if you do not live in Kansas, we still need your help. Women have come to Kansas from every state for late-term abortions, until recently, making what goes on in Kansas a national issue. Please help us right this wrong and save innocent lives.
Take a moment to voice support for the Kansas Abortion Clinic Regulations bill.
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