KANSAS CITY, Kansas (LifeSiteNews) – Kansas City Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann is urging Catholics to support a pro-life amendment that Kansas citizens are set to vote on this coming week.
During a July 22 interview with Prudence Robertson of EWTN’s “Pro-Life Weekly,” Archbishop Naumann advocated for the Kansas “Value Them Both” amendment, which will be on the ballot on August 2 in Kansas and would allow for stronger pro-life laws in the state.
“I think we’ve got to reach minds and change hearts by [education],” Naumann said. “Not the way that our opponents try to do things with violence and with bullying, but by simply presenting people with the truth … And so I think we don’t have enemies. We just have pro-lifers who haven’t yet been converted. And I think we have to work on that.”
According to the Catholic News Agency, the amendment, if passed, will reverse the Kansas Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling that the state’s constitution protects a woman’s “right” to abortion.
The 2019 ruling currently allows largely unrestricted abortion. The amendment itself would not completely ban abortion but would allow for restrictions, including a total or near-total ban.
“The Value Them Both Amendment is not a ban on abortion but protects women and babies from an unregulated and predatory abortion industry by returning the right to the people to keep laws that limit abortion,” Danielle Underwood, the director of communications for Kansans for Life, told CNA.
“Without common sense laws in place, Kansas will become home to a growing number of abortion factories with no specific licensure, sanitation standards, or inspections,” she warned.
Naumann also celebrated the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, saying, “I think for many of us, it’s been like the Berlin Wall coming down. But of course, there are others that have become convinced … that we can’t survive as a society without the ability to kill our own children.”
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Approximately nine states have totally banned virtually all abortions while many others have drastically limited access as more states follow suit. As LifeSiteNews has reported, abortion facilities have ceased abortions in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Abortions initially stopped in Kentucky, Utah, Louisiana, and West Virginia but have resumed due to recent court orders.