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Published May 02, 2007 01:01 am - TOPEKA, Kan. — Doctors would have to tell the state exactly why they aborted viable fetuses, and state health officials would have to summarize the information in reports under a deal brokered Tuesday by legislative negotiators. Kansas: Budget deal includes new abortion requirement for KDHE The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. — Doctors would have to tell the state exactly why they aborted viable fetuses, and state health officials would have to summarize the information in reports under a deal brokered Tuesday by legislative negotiators. Three senators and three House members agreed to impose the new reporting policy for the Department of Health and Environment as they worked on a compromise version of the year’s last spending bill. If the agency did not comply, it would not be allowed to spend any money during the fiscal year beginning July 1. But as part of the deal, negotiators decided the spending bill wouldn’t include related provisions for the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services and the State Board of Healing Arts, which licenses doctors. The House had approved all three, but the Senate hadn’t considered them. Abortion opponents have long sought more details about why doctors perform late-term procedures, arguing additional data will be useful to legislators and give the public more information. Critics view the new reporting requirements as a step toward limiting access to abortion. Negotiators finished their work on the spending bill Tuesday, and both chambers planned to consider it Wednesday. Approval by both sends it to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who has the power to veto individual items in budget measures. She supports abortion rights and vetoed a reporting bill last year, but spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said, “Governor Sebelius will need to carefully review this proviso if it reaches her desk.” Senators didn’t want to include any of the provisions in the spending bill. Sen. Dwayne Umbarger, R-Thayer, their lead negotiator, argued such policy has no place in the budget — where it would remain in effect only one year, anyway. He said he agreed on allowing one provision to clear the way for a deal on the entire spending bill. Rep. Sharon Schwartz, R-Washington, gave the same reason for backing off two of the three provisions. “It’s all about compromise,” Schwartz said. State law says that after the 21st week of pregnancy, a doctor can abort a viable fetus to save a woman’s life or to prevent “substantial and irreversible harm” to “a major bodily function.” Although the law doesn’t specifically say that a major bodily function includes mental health, officials have enforced the law as if it did. Also, obtaining such an abortion requires a second opinion from a doctor with no financial or legal tie to the abortion provider. Since the law took effect in 1998, doctors in Kansas have performed 4,480 abortions. About 2,600, or 54 percent of them, were on viable fetuses. Currently, doctors report each late-term procedure, whether the fetus was viable and whether the abortion preserved a woman’s life or her health. Physicians must state generally how they made those assessments. But abortion opponents want doctors to spell out the medical condition leading to each late-term abortion when the fetus is viable. Rep. Jan Pauls, D-Hutchinson, said she and other abortion opponents believe most are for mental health reasons. 
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