TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Medicaid has paid for four abortions in Kansas since January 2013, which by law can only be covered in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life, state health department data show.
The Kansas News Service reported Wednesday that data it obtained from the state Department of Health and Environment showed that the one abortion in 2014 and three in 2018 cost the public a total of $1,030, including $454 that came specifically from Kansas taxpayers.
The information comes as some Republican legislative leaders are fighting the proposed expansion of Medicaid coverage to about 130,000 more Kansans, in part because they fear it would increase publicly funded abortions. Other Republicans and Democrats contend that the issues aren’t related.
Federal law allows Medicaid spending on abortions only in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life. Kansas bans the spending of state money on abortion except as required by federal law. Twenty-one other states allow Medicaid dollars to go toward abortions in other situations.
Abortion opponents want to pass an amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would specify that abortion is not a constitutionally protected right in the state, which would overturn a state Supreme Court decision last year.
The state Senate passed the measure but it failed in the House earlier this month when four moderate Republicans and a half dozen Democrats voted against putting the proposed amendment on the state’s August primary ballot. The amendment fell four votes short of the two-thirds majority needed in the 125-member House to pass.
Since then, amendment backers, led by Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, have vowed to block any debate on Medicaid expansion until the proposed amendment is put to a public referendum.
Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning has split with Wagle on the issue, arguing Medicaid expansion and abortion are not linked.