Kansas anti-abortion organization seeks special session to challenge reproductive rights

Johnson said there was urgency to his quest after Kansans rejected in early August by a margin of 61% to 39% a constitutional amendment that would have required Kansas Supreme Court justices to be elected rather than appointed. Supporters of that amendment were intent on adding conservative justices willing to reverse Supreme Court precedent declaring the state’s Bill of Rights granted women bodily autonomy and the right to end a pregnancy.

The judicial amendment met the same fate as the “Value Them Both” constitutional amendment in 2022. That amendment was derailed 59% to 41% and would have nullified the 2019 decision of the Supreme Court affirming women in Kansas had a fundamental right to abortion despite reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court of Roe v. Wade.

“Nearly a year ago, we had information that led us to predict that the judicial election amendment was in trouble and would likely be defeated by an even greater margin than Value Them Both in the 2022 primary election,” Johnson said. “Based on that information, we repeatedly lobbied lawmakers and legislative leaders during this year’s legislative session to pass the Kansas Equal Rights Amendment and place it on the November general election ballot. We offered KERA as a backup plan in case our concerns proved to be valid, which, unfortunately, they did.”

Garrett Henson, a spokesman for Masterson, said Masterson was “not associated with this effort, nor is he familiar with it. There are no plans for a special session.”

State Sen. Cindy Holscher, the Democratic nominee for governor, said it would be wrong for the Legislature to embrace an amendment stripping Kansans of constitutional rights.

“Extremists keep looking for new ways to ban abortion, but Kansans have been loud and clear. Kansans don’t want politicians taking away our constitutional rights,” Holscher said. “When I’m governor, I’ll block any attack on our freedoms and I’ll protect Kansans’ rights to make their own decisions.”

House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard, D-Lenexa, said convening a special session to consider a third constitutional amendment related to abortion was a nonstarter.

“I think the people of Kansas are getting very good at voting ‘no,’ and they don’t want us to waste their tax dollars for a sham special session for an issue they have now rejected twice,” Woodard said.

In Kansas, special sessions of the Legislature can be called by a governor or when two-thirds of House and Senate members signed separate petitions triggering a special meeting at the Capitol. In 2025, House and Senate leadership sought a special session to redraw congressional boundaries to undermine reelection prospects of U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, but that fell short when an insufficient number of House Republicans signed.

In Johnson’s statement, he alleged Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, who won the GOP nomination for state insurance commissioner, chose for “blatantly selfish political reasons” to block House votes in the 2026 session on the life-begins-at-conception amendment.

Hawkins, who didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, transferred the abortion resolution seven times back and forth between two obscure committees to keep it out of reach of state representatives interested in forcing action on the amendment.

Masterson was aware of the “game of keep-away” orchestrated by Hawkins and didn’t take it upon himself to move the amendment in the Senate, Johnson said. However, Johnson asked Masterson to “demonstrate true leadership by rallying lawmakers to convene a special session prior to the end of 2026.”

“Though we acknowledge that no constitutional amendment is assured of passage by the voters, we were confident that, properly explained, KERA, which contains just four easy-to-understand words, stood a reasonable chance of adoption,” Johnson said.

Johnson said Kansas voters were likely to embrace a constitutional amendment that provided equal treatment to Kansans, regardless of whether a fetus was in the womb or a child had been born.

The two previous constitutional amendments regarding abortion rights were bogged down by “wordy, complicated and confusing” ballot language, Johnson said. The text of those amendments was written by legislators and lobbyists in support of those amendments.

Johnson said the Legislature should tackle his anti-abortion amendment before the 2027 Legislature convened in January because existing Republican supermajorities in the Senate and House had a chance to get it on statewide ballots in 2028 or sooner. The pressure to act could be associated with concern the outcome of November general elections could enable Democrats to break the GOP supermajority in the House. If that occurred, it would be more difficult to convince 84 of 125 House members to approve constitutional amendments.

In 2025, the Legislature passed House Bill 2062 to grant child support from the moment of conception forward. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the bill, but the House and Senate overrode the governor.

“We believe those margins are still there and will remain intact through the end of this year. The principle underlying HB 2062 — that a Kansan is recognized as sufficiently human from conception and worthy of receiving child support from his or her father — is the principle underpinning KERA,” Johnson said.

The amendment requested by Johnson would alter Section 1 of the state’s Bill of Rights to say, “All men and women are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights, among which are life from conception, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

This story was originally published by the Kansas Reflector.