TOPEKA — Crisis pregnancy centers could reap protections under a bill passed by Kansas Republicans exempting centers from regulations that forbid or force centers to perform abortions.

The “center autonomy and rights of expression act,” or CARE act, establishes a regulatory shield for crisis pregnancy centers, sometimes called pregnancy resource centers. The bill says centers should be allowed to provide their own information, services and resources on pregnancy, childbirth and parenting, regardless of whether they perform abortions or prescribe abortion-inducing medications.

“Too many women feel abortion is their only option,” said Danielle Underwood, associate executive director of Kansans for Life, the anti-abortion nonprofit behind the bill. “House Bill 2635 ensures that organizations walking with women who choose life are free from the kind of harassment seen in states like New Jersey in Massachusetts.”

Kansas is home to 44 crisis pregnancy centers and seven abortion clinics. The state has given more than $7 million to crisis pregnancy centers since 2022 through its Pregnancy Compassion Awareness Program.

Medical experts have found that crisis pregnancy centers can delay access to health care. They also can promulgate inaccurate information about abortion pill reversal treatment, evade regulatory oversight and target low-income populations, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The Senate voted 31-9 along party lines Thursday to pass the bill. It followed the House’s 87-37 vote in February. The bill will go to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who can veto the bill, sign it, or let it become law without her signature. If she chooses to veto, a two-thirds majority of the House and Senate are required to override it.

The bill prohibits state and local governments from imposing regulations on centers. That includes requiring centers to perform abortions, counsel clients in favor of abortion, post materials promoting abortion, restrict pregnancy and parenting services, or staff centers with people “who do not affirm the center’s mission or pro-life ethic.”

Anti-abortion groups see crisis pregnancy centers as bastions of “life-affirming care.” They are a risk of “censorship and malicious investigations simply because of these centers’ pro-life views,” wrote Brittany Jones, president of the conservative Christian nonprofit Kansas Family Voice, in February testimony.

But abortion providers see the centers differently.

Taylor Morton, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, said in February testimony that centers “are explicitly anti-abortion organizations that advertise pregnancy-related services yet operate with the intention of persuading pregnant people against seeking abortion care.”

Jeanne Gawdun, a lobbyist for Kansans For Life, introduced the bill after the group’s March for Life rally in January. At that event, she listed the bill as one of the anti-abortion organization’s top priorities this legislative session, and anti-abortion leaders targeted courts as a hurdle to outlawing abortion in the state.

Abortion in Kansas is allowed up to 22 weeks of gestation. The state has some of the most permissive abortion policies among red states, in large part because of the August 2022 statewide vote that preserved abortion as a state constitutional right.

The conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom has spearheaded the legislation nationally, and while it didn’t identify Kansas as a state with impending restrictions on crisis pregnancy centers, the bill, if enacted, could affect an active lawsuit in Johnson County that challenges the state’s entire informed consent law.

A decision in the case, Hodes and Nauser v. Kobach, is pending.

HB 2635 is a companion to House Bills 2727 and 2729. Each gets at a piece of the lawsuit.

HB 2727 makes it easier for people to sue physicians if they don’t adequately meet Kansas law’s informed consent requirements under the Women’s Right to Know Act. HB 2729 requires the forms that abortion providers must give to patients under the Women’s Right to Know Act contain the Kansas Department of Health and Environment letterhead. KDHE would also be required to appear on the informed consent and medication abortion reversal notice signs that had to be displayed in abortion clinics under the Right to Know Act. 

The Right to Know Act is currently enjoined as a result of the lawsuit.

HB 2635 also makes it easier for crisis pregnancy centers to sue anyone or any governing entity that violates the CARE act, if it becomes law. The bill also creates a path to permit legislators to intervene in any CARE act lawsuit.

“Many of the people who are asking us to codify protections for pregnancy centers through HB 2635 are also the ones who have worked to take away the rights of bodily autonomy from others,” said Sen. Marci Francisco, a Lawrence Democrat, while explaining her vote Thursday on the Senate floor.

She said she was wary of the potential for medical misinformation if the bill became law. She sat on a committee that heard testimony on the bill, and much of the testimony was from pregnancy center directors — not clients, she said.

“I do not want to mislead my constituents,” she said. “I vote no.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

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