Anti-Choice Kansas Pols Busking for Money to Defend Extreme Abortion Ban

The state of Kansas is in the midst of a serious budget crisis, so naturally, a bunch of white men who know everything about the way women’s bodies should operate are looking to scrounge up cash for one of the most extreme anti-choice laws in the country.

Reports RH Reality Check:

[Sam Brownback ] this month signed SB 95 into law, which will make Kansas the first state in the nation to criminalize a medical procedure used after a miscarriage and during second-trimester abortions.

The new law will outlaw dilation and evacuation (D and E) abortion procedures used in 8 percent of all abortions, about 600 annually, performed in the state, reports the Topeka Capital-Journal.

Hmm. Well, that sounds like it’ll be really beneficial for women. Tell me more?

While the governor tours the state, attorney general Derek Schmidt told lawmakers there that defending the radical law against the almost certain legal challenges to come could cost the state as much as $450,000, according to the Associated Press.

The attorney general’s office is requesting up to $50,000 by the end of June, as the anti-choice law will go into effect July 1. Schmidt said another $100,000 to $200,000 for the rest of the fiscal year, and up to $200,000 more for the following fiscal year, could be required to defend the medically unnecessary law.

Kansas has already spent more than $1 million defending anti-choice laws against legal challenges, and has yet to lose in court.

Other things that the state of Kansas could spend a half million dollars on instead, if it wanted to: approximately 500 purebred puppies; 166,000 bags of Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies; one Rolls-Royce Phantom (or two Ghosts, if you’re in need of a backup whip); 16,666 pairs of Capezio “Tapster” tap shoes; 20-ish first edition copies of To Kill a Mockingbird; a 20-square foot Manhattan apartment. Or, you know, education, infrastructure, or something Kansas actually needs.

Again: that’s if it wanted to. I don’t expect a state that’s half a billion in the hole to blow its public coffers on frivolous things like pups and cookies and infringement on women’s rights.