Kansas Republicans overrode Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly’s vetoes of two pro-life bills late last week, including one that mandates public school instruction on fetal development.
The Kansas House voted 84-41 and the Senate voted 31-9 on Thursday to override Kelly’s veto of HB 2382, which requires school districts to “include a fetal development presentation as part of the curriculum for any course that addresses human growth, human development or human sexuality …,” the bill summary states.
The override came one day after Kelly’s veto, in which the pro-abortion Democrat called the bill “convoluted, manipulative, and wrong for a number of reasons.”
The bill specifically requires students in the state’s public schools to view a “presentation of a high-quality, computer-generated animation or high definition ultrasound of at least three minutes in duration that shows the development of the brain, heart and other vital organs in early human fetal development.”
This could include material like Live Action’s “Baby Olivia,” which the pro-life organization says, “offers a realistic, digital animation to depict medically-accurate information about the preborn child’s life in the womb, capturing significant growth and development milestones from the moment of fertilization through birth.”
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Pro-abortion activists have called such instruction “Christian nationalist indoctrination” and have bemoaned the possibility that showing early life in the womb could “reinforce abortion stigma.” Others have specifically claimed that “Baby Olivia” is scientifically inaccurate, which Live Action thoroughly refutes.
Kelly claimed in her veto that the bill “fails to establish standards to ensure the information included in the program is evidence-based” and said the goal is to “push a specific agenda without proper research to back it up.”
“What the opponents fear most about this bill is that the scientific facts might actually lead students to their own conclusions,” he said. “When they say they lack context, I feel like what they really mean is that it lacks the insertion of their ideology,” state Sen. Joe Claeys countered during floor debate last week.
Kansas joins a growing list of states that have similar laws in place, including North Dakota, Tennessee, and Idaho. Other states like Florida and Arkansas are considering comparable bills.
“Watching a video like this is what made me turn pro-life,” Kansas mother Danielle Good told The Kansas City Star. “I think everyone should have a visual of what actually happens during that procedure before making a life-altering decision.”
Kansas Republicans also overrode Kelly’s veto of HB 2062, which mandates “[p]roviding for child support orders for unborn children from the date of conception, including the direct medical and pregnancy-related expenses of the mother as a factor in child support orders and providing for an income tax exemption for unborn and stillborn children …,” the bill summary states.
Kelly called the bill an “overreach” in her veto.
“At first glance, this bill may appear to be a proposal to support pregnant women and families,” she said. “However, this bill is yet another attempt by special interest groups and extremist lawmakers to ignore the will of Kansans and insert themselves into the lives of those making private medical decisions.”
Republicans disagreed, saying the bill provides “common sense measures that support women and babies.”
“But because of the governor’s unreasonable pro-abortion ideology, even more funding to help pregnant women, fetal development education, and holding deadbeat dads accountable are too extreme for her,” state Sen. Ty Masterson and state Rep. Dan Hawkins said in a joint statement following Kelly’s veto.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.