Abortion

High school students could get a more graphic explanation about abortion procedures, including whether a fetus would feel any pain during the procedure, under a bill that passed the House.

More from the Kansas City Star:

The 77-48 vote Friday on the measure, which started out dealing with reporting abortion statistics, returns the bill the Senate to consider the House changes.

When the bill was debated Thursday, Rep. Jan Pauls amended it to say any discussion about abortion must include a description of all methods of abortion, including what state law calls partial birth abortion. The information must include “the probable physical sensations of pain a fetus feels or detects” during the various procedures.

The bill also says that when schools offer pregnancy-related instruction, it should include information about fetal development and gestation, including pictures or drawings of the fetus at four-week increments from fertilization to full term.

“It’s important that when children are being taught sex ed, they be aware of what the fetus looks like,” said Pauls, D-Hutchinson.

Pauls said she didn’t consider the measure an anti-abortion bill.

“If a girl might choose an abortion at some point, they would be informed,” she said. “For me, it’s just a disclosure. Students need to know what fetuses look like and the methods of abortion.”

The bill also says the method of implementing the requirements should be left to the schools and that parents or guardians can refuse to have their child attend such instruction.

The original intent of the bill was to generate more information about abortions performed after the 22nd week of pregnancy, including details about the specific fetal anomalies, although abortion rights supporters say the true goal is to burden doctors and clinics.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment statistics show the number of reported abortions decreased from 12,327 in 2000 to 10,542 last year.

Kathy Ostrowski, a Kansans for Life lobbyist, said the bill will result in additional information about abortions so that Kansans know whether the law is being followed.

She and her fellow anti-abortion activists believe clinics violate openly violate restrictions, particularly on late-term procedures.

But the clinics have said repeatedly that they comply with Kansas law.

And Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, an abortion rights supporter, said the bill is vague about when additional information is required.

“This ambiguity would allow a zealous prosecutor or a zealous attorney general or the like to conduct further fishing expeditions,” Haley said.

Haley and other abortion rights activists also criticized the requirement that human sexuality courses discuss abortion methods.

“Those are not things that most parents are going to want their 12- or 13-year-old kid to know about,” Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence.

But Ostrowski said girls as young as 13 and 14 regularly receive health services because they’re sexually active.

“They should know what the facts are of the pregnancy, rather than have the girl discover a few years later,” she said.

The Idaho Senate is set to debate an informed consent bill that requires women to wait 24 hours before having an abortion and be told by doctors about their fetuses and the procedure’s potential complications.

More via Boise’s KBCI:

The Senate State Affairs Committee voted unanimously Friday to send the amended informed consent bill to the floor for debate.

The changes are meant to allow doctors to skirt the waiting period and information requirements in the case of medical emergencies.

That exception was missing from the original law, which the Idaho Attorney General says is likely unconstitutional.

Deputy Attorney General William von Tagen signed off on the proposed changes, saying they’d likely pass judicial scrutiny.

Anti-abortion advocacy groups praised the measure, sponsored by Sen. Hal Bunderson, (R) Meridian.

Barbara Gough with Generation Life told senate committee members that when she had an abortion at age 17 in 1985, not much information was made available to her.

“They just highlighted the surgery procedure,” Gough told Local 2 News. “There was no information on alternatives to abortion, emotional effects, it was all very superficial. Basically it left me in the dark.”

Meanwhile, abortion rights advocates said the package shores up laws that interfere with access to abortions and encroaches on the doctor-patient relationship.

“This bill forces health care professionals to provide women with information that is intended to discourage them from having abortions,” said Marty Durand with ACLU of Idaho.

In a related development, a proposed new law requiring minor girls to get their parents’ consent before having an abortion has stalled and may not get a hearing this year.

The Idaho attorney general has concerns about its constitutionality.

Idaho has spent $360,000 dollars since 2000 fighting separate abortion-related litigation, including a 2005 parental-consent law that’s on appeal in the U-S 9th Circuit.

That has state lawmakers leery about passing another law that’ll just cost the state more money in legal fees.

According to a March 28 opinion from the state’s top law enforcement agency, provisions of Representative Bill Sali’s bill for a girl to bypass her parents’ permission by going through a judge still face legitimate challenges in court.

The Kuna Republican, who is running for Congress, said he wasn’t certain if he’d be able to resurrect the measure this year.

He says “the bar has been set pretty high.”