TOPEKA, Kansas (LifeSiteNews) — The Kansas House voted in favor of a born-alive bill this week with a veto-proof majority.
The House approved an amended version of H.B. 2313 with a bipartisan 86-36 vote Tuesday. The vote comes after the Kansas state Senate voted 31-9 for an amended version of the initial House legislation late last month. The bill now goes to the desk of far-left Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly, who vetoed similar legislation in 2019, the Associated Press reported.
🎉 The Kansas House just sent the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act to the Governor by a vote of 86-36. https://t.co/mfTNRsWKbM
— Kansans for Life (@kansansforlife) April 4, 2023
According to the provisions of the bill, doctors and healthcare workers present at any birth resulting from a failed abortion must immediately provide health care to the baby. The bill also requires that records should be kept of all births resulting from failed abortions, including induced births.
The bill further states that healthcare providers who violate its provisions could be subject to felony charges. The bill also allows for the mothers of babies that died as a result of health care providers’ actions resulting in the failed abortion, as well as the parents or guardians of a minor whose child died in the same circumstance, to file lawsuits against the abortion provider.
The bill marked the first abortion-related debate in the Kansas legislature after a referendum last August that rejected a pro-life amendment to the state constitution. The amendment was meant to override a judgment of the Kansas Supreme Court, which in 2019 ruled that there is a “right” to abortion under the state constitution.