Davids finds poignancy in 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and 2022 reversal of landmark ruling

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas accentuated reproductive rights during her 2022 reelection campaign and wants no one to forget Monday’s anniversary of the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 22, 1973, establishing national constitutional protections for abortion.

“I’ve always been very clear that I’m pro-choice,” Davids said in a podcast interview with Kansas Reflector. “Politicians and politics should not be determining any kind of reproductive health care decisions for a woman. That should be between her and her doctor and her family.”

The Supreme Court issued a 7–2 decision in Roe v. Wade — in one of the court’s most controversial and deeply felt actions — declaring the 14th Amendment provided a fundamental right to privacy that shielded a woman’s right to abortion. It wasn’t absolute and had to be balanced against the government’s interest in protecting prenatal life and women’s health. All of that was unwound on June 24, 2022, when a more conservative Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in the 5-4 decision declaring the previous decision “egregiously wrong.”

The reversal meant states could set their own boundaries on abortion, and 14 have banned it and seven others bolstered restrictions. Abortion remains legal in Kansas due to a 2019 decision by the state Supreme Court that said the right to bodily autonomy in the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights meant women could legally terminate a pregnancy. That view prevailed in 2022 when Kansas voters, by nearly a two-thirds majority, rejected a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution designed to nullify the state court’s conclusion.

“A woman should not be at the whim of any type of politics when it comes to making a health care decision,” Davids said.

Davids, a Cornell law school graduate and an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, was elected to Congress in 2018. She represents the 3rd District of Johnson and Wyandotte counties along with a handful of rural counties to the south. She is Kansas’ lone Democrat in the Kansas congressional delegation.

Pair of House bills

In Washington, D.C., Davids voted against two abortion bills on Jan. 18 that passed the U.S. House by narrow margins. The first was a measure requiring colleges and universities to provide information to female students about their unfettered right to carry a pregnancy to term. That legislation, passed by the House 212-207, didn’t mandate information on reproductive health care and contraception to be shared with students.

“That bill is one that really, I would say, hides a set of dishonest policies,” she said. “I just couldn’t in good conscience support that type of legislation.”

U.S. Reps. Tracey Mann of the 1st District, Jake LaTurner of the 2nd District and Ron Estes of the 4th District in Kansas — all Republicans — voted for that higher education bill.

The second bill adopted by the U.S. House involved pregnancy resource centers, which were created to convey opposition to abortion but weren’t’ responsible for delivery of reproductive health services to women. The Biden administration raised concern federal funding meant to help low-income individuals with food, rent and child care services was being diverted by states to the centers operated to encourage women to give birth. This bill, approved 214-208, would prevent federal agencies from “discriminating” against these resource centers.

“These facilities are purposely deceiving folks who are seeking reproductive health care,” Davids said. “In many instances, we have seen that they are not sharing information about the full range of reproductive health care services that are available. Not only are they not available at those centers, but they also are not even sharing that they could get access to health care, reproductive health care, including abortions in other facilities.”

The state’s three GOP members of the U.S. House — LaTurner, Mann and Estes — voted in favor of that bill.

Estes, who serves the southcentral Kansas congressional district centered on Wichita, said birth rates in Kansas and other states were in decline because there was a cultural bias that didn’t “value or prioritize life.” Overturning of Roe v. Wade two years ago offered Americans the chance to broaden the conversation beyond reversal of that decision to include advocacy for expansion of families, Estes said.

“Reversing Roe set a floor, not a ceiling, for legislators to enact laws as protective of life as their constituents want,” he said. “While much of the onus is now on the states to pass laws protecting life, there is still a role for the federal government to play.”

Estes said the Biden administration shouldn’t block states from allowing Temporary Assistance for Need Family, or TANF, funds to be used by pregnancy resource centers.

Kansans spoke ‘clearly’

In terms of the U.S. Supreme Court, Davids said she was disappointed Justice Clarence Thomas expressed interest in considering whether contraception was unconstitutional.

“I’m very concerned to have a Supreme Court justice calling into question people’s right to access contraception,” Davids said.

She was among about 240 members of Congress to sign a legal brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to not interrupt access to mifepristone by women seeking to end a pregnancy by taking medication. Mifepristone has been proven safe and effective through use by millions of women in the United States, she said.

The filing of a bill by Republicans in the Kansas House nearly banning abortion was a misguided attempt to test constitutional boundaries of the state’s Supreme Court, Davids said. Attempts to adopt legislation allowing people to file lawsuits against medical professionals who performed abortions would be a mistake, she said.

Davids said rejection of the proposed state constitutional amendment on abortion should be respected by politicians at the state Capitol.

“It was a broad coalition of people that spoke pretty clearly about these extreme attempts to restrict reproductive health care,” she said. “The most effective thing I can do is be clear about my wanting to protect those rights.”