Kobach lays out plan to remove abortion rights in Kansas after failed amendment

Republican attorney general candidate Kris Kobach has unveiled a new strategy for removing abortion rights from the state constitution a month after Kansas voters affirmed those rights by a wide margin.

“This issue is not over,” Kobach said Friday at a Wichita Pachyderm Club campaign appearance. “The fight for life is going to continue.”

Kobach, former Kansas Secretary of State, is calling on the GOP-dominated Legislature to put forward another ballot question that would amend the state’s constitution. This time, it would not address abortion rights directly. Instead, it would ask voters whether Kansas Supreme Court justices should be selected by direct election.

The change, Kobach said, would clear a path for the state to “slowly and quietly” place anti-abortion judges on the state’s high court with the ultimate goal of overturning the Kansas Supreme Court’s 2019 Hodes decision that found the state constitution includes the right to an abortion.

Kobach said the Hodes decision threw “a huge wrench into the works” of the anti-abortion movement in Kansas.

“Now, there are two ways to deal with that,” Kobach said. “There are two paths. One is to come in with a state constitutional amendment that corrects the decision. That’s what we just tried to do, and it didn’t work out. But there’s another path.”

Electing justices by popular vote is the next-best option for overturning the Hodes decision, Kobach said.

Kansas already allows voters to oust unpopular judges from the state’s high court, but Kansas voters have never done so. In November, six out of seven justices are up for a retention vote.

Kobach blamed the August defeat partly on the wording of the Republican-crafted Value Them Both amendment, saying it confused voters and allowed the Vote No campaign to “muddy the waters.”

“We have to make sure that the next constitutional amendment is crystal clear — so that they cannot deceive, they cannot convince voters that the amendment is what it is not,” Kobach said.

“And I think if you look at the various proposals, one of the proposals that is crystal clear is allowing people to popularly elect justices to the Supreme Court, which is the most common system among all of the states in the country,” Kobach said.

Kansas Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat, said Kansas voters have already decided to keep abortion rights in the constitution. He compared Kobach’s comments to an effort by Brownback to reform judicial selection amid school funding litigation.

“Kris Kobach just never learns he is out of touch with Kansans,” Carmichael said. “He lives in a world of fantasy where he thinks everyone thinks the way he does.”

Kobach’s proposal comes as other Republicans seeking statewide office have largely avoided discussing abortion, instead attacking Democratic candidates on national wedge issues and the economy. His comments stand in contrast to campaign messaging by Republican gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt, who has said the Aug. 2 vote “needs to be respected” but “that does not mean the discussion has ended.”

A Supreme Court change would align with a plan put forth earlier this month by former Gov. Sam Brownback, who said the way forward for abortion opponents is a Christian-right takeover of the Supreme Court.

Schmidt, now the state’s attorney general, said during the state fair debate that he would vote to retain some judges but not all.

“With respect to the abortion issue, I am pro life,” Schmidt said during the debate. “Kansans have decided. Their decision needs to be respected. That does not mean the discussion has ended. It will continue as before.”

Schmidt’s campaign did not respond Friday to questions about whether he would support a push for judicial selection reform.

A move to pack the Kansas Supreme Court with anti-abortion judges would almost certainly be met with resistance. But Republicans in Kansas have long pushed for changes in Kansas’ judicial selection process.

Now, a panel selects three candidates and the governor chooses from those options. During the 2022 legislative session, Senate President Ty Masterson pushed for an amendment that would place selection reform on the August ballot.

The Senate Judiciary committee held hearings on two constitutional amendments, one that would mirror the federal model with Senate confirmation and one that established partisan elections for judges.

The committee advanced the federal model option to the Senate floor, but the proposal could not gain the two-thirds vote needed to advance to the House.

It’s unclear whether Kobach’s proposal or some other change to judicial selection will come up for a vote in the 2023 session.

“Judicial selection reform has long been a priority of President Masterson,” Masterson spokesperson Mike Pirner said. “Whether it is brought up this session or not is yet to be determined.”