Each week during the 2023 Kansas legislative session, we will provide Shawnee Mission area lawmakers the opportunity to share their thoughts about what is happening in the state capitol.
Below is this week’s submission from Democratic Rep. Jo Ella Hoye of Kansas House District 17 in Lenexa and Shawnee.
Republican Rep. Sean Tarwater and Democratic Sen. Ethan Corson were also given a chance to submit columns this week.
The views expressed in each Capitol Update are solely those of the lawmaker.
We find ourselves entering into the first year without federal protections for our reproductive rights 50 years after Roe v. Wade became the law of the land and seven months after it was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Jan. 22, we should have been celebrating the hard-fought freedom to make our own health care decisions. Instead, many of us are still in shock at the reality that we have lost one of our rights and been set back after decades of progress.
The Kansas Legislature is in full swing, and there was already a bill introduced that would chip away at the right to an abortion by allowing local governments to regulate and ban abortion despite the fact that a bill like this is still unconstitutional in our state.
Kansans united to save our constitutional right to privacy and bodily autonomy on August 2, 2022, but there are lawmakers who believe that the government should be able to control women’s bodies.
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The Legislature tried to abolish our constitutional freedom in order to impose crimes and penalties and medically unnecessary mandates on health care, but the people were loud and clear. Placing doctors in legal jeopardy while women’s lives hang in the balance is dangerous. We don’t want doctors wasting time determining whether the best method to save a life violates the law. Abortion bans leave people without health care options and put women at risk of needless pain and suffering.
As a state representative, I am on the front lines of the fight for reproductive freedom. The government shouldn’t interfere between physicians and their patients.The role of the legislature is to protect the safety of patients by ensuring that the practice of medicine is well regulated, and we should improve access to prenatal and postpartum care.
Bills seeking to ban abortion intentionally and recklessly disregard the will of Kansans.
In 2020, I didn’t hear much about abortion on the campaign trail. The fall of Roe v. Wade changed everything last November. The right to choose was the top issue I heard from the people in my district. I have spoken to constituents at their doors, on the phone and at town halls. So many of us are worried about what the future holds now that this generation has fewer rights over their bodies than the generation before them.
I will work to defeat any new attempts to ban abortion. We must overcome this overwhelming blow and build something better and stronger than Roe v. Wade to guarantee the right to access a safe, legal abortion once and for all.
