Whack-0-Legislators: Kansas Bill Would Protect Doctors Who Mislead Women About Pregnancies and Unborn Death Certificates
Yes, that’s right the Religious GOP says it’s ok to Lie, if it’s to a woman.
The Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee recommended a bill yesterday that would effectively allow doctors to lie or withhold information about debilitating genetic conditions or birth defects in order to influence women’s decisions about their pregnancies.
Kansas SB 142 provides blanket protection from “wrongful birth” lawsuits to doctors, with section 1(a) reading:
“No civil action may be commenced in any court for a claim of wrongful life or wrongful birth, and no damages may be recovered in any civil action for any physical condition of a minor that existed at the time of such minor’s birth if the damages sought arise out of a claim that a person’s action or omission contributed to such minor’s mother not obtaining an abortion.”
The Arizona State Senate passed a similar law in 2012, but that proposal contained a provision absent from the Kansas bill allowing wrongful birth suits in the event of “an intentional or grossly negligent act or omission.”
More: Kansas Bill Would Protect Doctors Who Mislead Women About Their Pregnancies
The head of the judiciary committee also has a bill that would establish Unborn Death Certificates
SB 161 would establish an unborn child death certificate. This would replace the existing stillbirth certificate currently issued by the Office of Vital Statistics and would expand reporting of unborn child deaths to include death at any stage of pregnancy. In addition, reporting requirements would be extended from institutions, funeral directors, attorneys, and courts to physicians when an unborn child death occurs outside of an institution. The changes in the bill would be known as Meriden’s Law.