Trust Women urges Kansas House members to oppose SB 95

Wichita, KS – Julie Burkhart, Trust Women Founder and CEO, issued the following statement regarding the Kansas House of Representatives’ consideration of SB 95.

“Today, the Kansas House debated a bill that will endanger women’s health. This bill does not include adequate exceptions to preserve the physical or mental health of the woman.

By banning a specific medical procedure, SB 95 criminalizes doctors and prevents them from using their medical judgment to decide which procedure is best for their patients. Politicians are not doctors and they should not play ones in the Kansas legislature.

This bill is intended to intimidate, threaten and criminalize doctors. Policymakers should be ashamed that they are putting women’s lives at risk because they care more about politics than good health care.

SB 95 is clearly unconstitutional and, if passed, we will challenge it in court. The law attempts to ban most abortions in the second trimester. This is several weeks before viability, the standard established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade.

Women in this region must already travel further and face many obstacles to obtain necessary reproductive health care. SB 95 will make it more difficult for women to access the care they need to live healthy lives and take care of their families. This bill will hurt Kansas women and their families. 

I call on lawmakers to oppose this bill if they trust Kansas women to make the best decisions for their lives and understand that doctors, not policymakers, should decide what’s in the best medical interest of their patients. I call on Kansas citizens to urge their lawmakers to trust women and vote no on SB 95.”

Trust Women opens clinics that provide full-spectrum reproductive healthcare, including abortion services, in underserved communities so that all women can make their own decisions about their health care. Trust Women works to expand access in the Midwest and the South.

The Gayly - March 26, 2015 @ 12pm.