TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Abortion opponents in Kansas have been bracing themselves for nearly two years for a ruling from the states highest court that protects the right to have an abortion and potentially upends politics in a state long at the center of the national debate.
The Kansas Supreme Court is relatively liberal in a state with a Republican-dominated Legislature that has strong anti-abortion majorities.
Court watchers also are asking: Why is it taking so long for the justices to rule?
No one outside the court knows for sure and the justices are not saying, as is their long-standing custom. One educated guess is that they still are wrestling with the implications of declaring that the state constitution protects abortion rights.
That was the core legal issue when the court heard attorneys arguments in March 2017 in a major abortion lawsuit . An abortion-rights decision could allow state courts in Kansas to chart their own course on abortion and invalidate restrictions that the federal courts would uphold.
Whats the test for that? said Jeffrey Jackson, a Washburn University of Topeka law professor. Theres any number of weird possible decisions that you can get to.
The case arises from abortion opponents numerous legislative victories during eight years under Republican governors. Democratic Gov.-elect Laura Kelly, a strong abortion rights supporter, takes office Monday, but the Legislature emerged from last years elections more conservative and as anti-abortion as ever.
GOP conservatives power in the Legislature surged following Summer of Mercy protests in 1991 against the late Dr. George Tillers clinic in Wichita, among a few in the U.S. known to do late-term abortions. An anti-abortion zealot shot Tiller to death in 2009.
Legislators debate abortion annually. Kansas recorded its lowest number of abortions in 30 years in 2017, fewer than 6,800 46 percent less than the peak of more than 12,400 in 1999.
Its more important than ever for Kansas to recognize that women have protections under the state constitution, said Genevieve Scott, a Center for Reproductive Rights attorney. Any time that a court recognizes womens rights, it has an important impact in shaping our national discourse.
Despite abortion foes political rise, six of the seven Kansas Supreme Court justices were appointed by Democratic or moderate Republican governors.
In 2016, abortion opponents, GOP conservatives and others upset with capital punishment decisions tried unsuccessfully to oust four of those justices when they faced a yes-or-no statewide vote on whether they would remain on the court for another six years. Anti-abortion leaders cited the case now before the court as one reason.
During arguments in the abortion case in 2017, four justices peppered the states solicitor general with skeptical questions when he argued that the state constitution cannot protect abortion rights because abortion generally was illegal when it was drafted in 1859.
Mary Kay Culp, executive director of the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life, worries that the decision will make it impossible for legislators to pass pro-life bills.
Thats worst-case scenario, and thats kind of what we expect, she said.
