Unneeded Kansas coercion law is just politicians restricting your choice on abortion | Opinion
On Aug. 2, 2022, 59% of Kansans voted against allowing politicians to further interfere in their private medical decisions about pregnancy and abortion. Politicians clearly did not get the message. Despite the historic turnout that delivered them a resounding defeat, they continue to do everything they can to meddle in our patients’ private lives and restrict our rights.
In 2022, I joined nearly 500 physicians and health care professionals when I publicly signed on to a letter opposing the Value Them Both amendment. We understood the real consequences of the amendment and the harm that would be done to our patients and their families. I listened as my patients shared their fears about losing their freedom to make health care decisions. I worked with Kansans for Constitutional Freedom to get the message out in new stories, online and in ads. I was so proud — and overwhelmed with emotion — when Kansans stood up for personal liberty and freedom and voted no.
This year, more than 100 Republican politicians again refused to listen to Kansas voters. Time and time again, they push through laws that violate our constitutional rights and our privacy. Again, this month extremists sent divisive, misleading and manipulative bills to the governor’s desk that sabotage health professionals’ ability to care for Kansans with lifesaving, evidence-based care.
Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed those bills with good reason. One bill tries to create a new crime of “abortion coercion.” This sort of coercion is already illegal in Kansas, but this bill is dangerously vague and criminalizes personal medical conversations about abortion among women, their families and health care providers. Another bill would require health care providers to violate patient privacy and report their personal reasons for seeking an abortion. And yet another bill provides taxpayer money to religious so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” that shame and mislead women seeking abortion care.
Combined, all three bills seek to insert government into the patient-physician relationship, second-guess medical decisions and criminalize women’s reproductive health care.
Clearly their goal is to cause further trauma and shame for women who face these difficult decisions. Not only that, but they hope to cause fear among health care providers and those who support patients through challenging complications in pregnancy. Politicians have no business intruding into private conversations among doctors, women and their families. These bills are designed to criminalize necessary health care, violate the privacy of patients and cause a chilling effect among physicians and health providers.
Voters made it clear how they felt about government overreach into reproductive health care. The conversation about whether abortion should be legal in Kansas should have ended at the ballot box in August 2022. Abortion is legal and will remain legal. But certain extreme Republicans still think they know what is best for women and their families. As a woman, these decisions should be ours to make privately with our families, physicians and faith leaders. As a physician, these conversations should be ours to guide with our patients and families without politicians’ interference.
As a family physician, I see patients at every stage of life. I know the health challenges many families face, including those around fertility, pregnancy, miscarriage and abortion. My duty is to care for my patients, protect their health and well-being, and provide them with guidance about the options available to them. Politicians have no such duty — nor do they have the required medical training.
These extreme, anti-abortion rights politicians continue to abuse their power. Undoubtedly, laws like these will trigger court battles over freedom of speech, medical privacy and government overreach into medical decisions. Kansans want their constitutional rights respected and protected, not restricted.
We must draw a line at the doctor’s office. Our decisions about pregnancy and abortion are private, and should be free from government surveillance and overreach.
Ashley E. Bloom practices family medicine in Lawrence. A dedicated Kansan, she earned her medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and completed her residency in family medicine at Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver.
