Kansas is a leading pro-life state, electing a pro-life super majority to both chambers. We’ve enacted many benchmark pro-life laws signed by pro-life GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. Brownback is seeking re-election, opposed by Democrat Paul Davis.
With the abortion issue omitted at every gubernatorial debate, many Kansas voters haven’t learned how very extreme Davis is on the life issue. As a state representative for 14 years from the most liberal district in Kansas, Davis voted 80 times AGAINST pro-life bills. Here’s a partial list of what Davis voted against:
- bans on sex-selection abortion, tax-funded abortions and gruesome abortions done on unborn children with proven pain capability;
- parental consent for abortion and against abortion clinics sending fetal dna samples from pregnant girls under age 14 to the KBI (as evidence for rape prosecution);
- state licensure for abortion clinics to include death and injury reporting for the health department;
- allowing prosecution for crimes against pregnant women to include separate charges for death and injuries to unborn children;
- conscience protection for pro-life doctors, healthcare workers and businesses that object to abortion.
Davis was tutored in anti-life stridency when he worked for Kathleen Sebelius (as state insurance commissioner) and interned for now-Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley. This animus is not just against state regulation of abortion, it shows when Davis voted against modest grants for pregnancy care centers and for creation of a unique (and ethical) stem cell therapy center.
Additionally, as Democrat policy chair, and later, as House Minority leader, Davis whipped up the opposition to pro-life bills, pressuring Democrat state reps not to vote pro-life. There are now less than a handful of pro-life Democrats left in the Kansas House.
Davis’ website reads, under the topic, HOW SHOULD KANSAS CHANGE LAWS RELATED TO ABORTION?:
“Kansas’ abortion laws are among the strictest in the nation – I will not change that as governor. I do feel that every woman has the right to make her own personal medical decisions in consultation with her family and her doctor – free from government intrusion.”
Well, of course he says he will not change the laws in effect, because he CANNOT do so! What he didn’t promise was to vigorously defend, and not undermine, the existing pro-life laws.
As an example, a Kansas abortion may not be performed unless the woman has accessed state info available at: woman’srighttoknow.org. Yet implementation of the 2009 update of this website was botched under the administration of then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, and not correctly implemented until Sam Brownback became governor in 2011.
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Through his choice of agency heads and budget priorities, an extremist pro-abortion politician like Davis would be a disaster for the unborn and women’s health. Davis could:
- veto new pro-life laws enacted by the pro-life Kansas House and Senate;
- use the state budget to fund abortion, instead of the current modest support for pregnancy help centers;
- select a cabinet whose members would allow subversion of current life-protective laws and agency regulations;
- deter the health department from investigating maternal deaths occurring at abortion clinics;
- pressure the state medical board to ignore abortion malpractice;
- refuse to rigorously defend state laws challenged in court.
The governor makes hundreds of appointments to advisory boards, as well as selecting a variety of judges, including those on the state Supreme Court.
It is not hard to imagine how much damage Davis could do as governor. Pro-lifers need to get the word out and get to the polls!
