Indiana lawmakers react to Kansas abortion vote

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — At least one supporter of Indiana’s abortion bill on Wednesday said events in Kansas might cause GOP lawmakers to change their calculus.

Just hours after an Indiana House committee advanced a bill to ban abortion under nearly all circumstances, voters in Kansas defeated a ballot measure to exclude abortion services from that state’s constitutional protections by a 59-41 margin.

Kansas has long had a reputation as one of the most conservative states in the country and lawmakers there also have vowed to tighten abortion regulations in the aftermath of the United States Supreme Court’s ruling.

Indiana’s proposed abortion ban has divided the General Assembly’s Republican supermajority. The current proposal would prohibit abortion under any circumstances other than fatal fetal abnormalities or to save the mother’s life. Rape and incest victims could get an abortion up to 10 weeks into their pregnancy.

The measure barely passed the Senate and one Republican House member broke with her party to vote against it when it passed out of Committee late Tuesday afternoon. Four other members of the committee voted in favor of it but said they had serious concerns that might cause them to vote differently in the full House.

Asked whether the vote in Kansas would affect negotiations around the bill, Rep. Sharon Nagle, R-Attica, who supported the bill in committee, said, “We’ll see. You know, this is complicated and this is a very polarizing subject matter. What we passed out of Courts and Criminal Code certainly is not the final bill.”

Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, said Democrats will bring up the Kansas vote during future discussions. He said he hopes Republicans heed the will of voters there and in Indiana.