TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Abortion opponents are urging a Kansas Senate committee to back legislation barring doctors from terminating pregnancies solely because a woman doesn’t want a baby of a certain gender.
Monday’s hearing by the Public Health and Welfare Committee began a push by anti-abortion groups and legislators for new restrictions on abortion and abortion providers.
The bill on so-called sex-selection abortions would make it a misdemeanor the first time a doctor was caught performing such a procedure. Doctors also could face lawsuits from family members of abortion patients.
Proponents of the bill said in other countries, such abortions are usually done to prevent a girl’s birth.
No abortion rights groups testified Monday, but National Organization for Women lobbyist Elise Higgins questioned whether such a measure can be enforced.
