'Beyond our control': In Kansas, coronavirus forces pause to abortion, Medicaid standoff

Mar. 19--TOPEKA -- Less than two weeks ago, Medicaid expansion supporters were led away by police after staging protests outside the Kansas Senate.

Some Senate Republicans were blockading the proposal until the House approved an anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution. There was no end to the standoff in sight.

Today, it all seems like the distant past. The Legislature's two signature fights are on pause for the foreseeable future.

With stunning speed, the biggest battle over Kansas abortion rights in years and the resolution of a nearly decade-long struggle over health insurance for the poor have been swept away by the coronavirus. Reported cases of the disease in the state continue to mount as the Legislature moves to adjourn early.

"We're entering a period that we've never experienced in our lifetimes," said Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican.

When, or if, lawmakers will return this year is unclear.

The Legislature adjourned on Thursday until April 27, though legislative leaders could call lawmakers back early or postpone meeting until as late as May 21. Lawmakers have spent the last week passing a stripped-down budget, extending Gov. Laura Kelly's emergency powers and passing other measures related to the pandemic.

For now, the Legislature faces the very real possibility it won't pass either the abortion amendment or Medicaid expansion this year. That outcome would leave nearly every lawmaker and advocate disappointed in some way as they head into campaign season.

"I'm sad that we're leaving them because in my mind I said 'this is the year it's going to happen,'" said Rep. Jim Kelly, an Independence Republican who supports both expansion and the amendment.

Closer than ever

Still, lawmakers have been making their peace with reality and many are acknowledging they had no choice but to turn their attention to the pandemic.

"They are hot button issues, but they're not critical to the operation of the state," said Rep. Brenda Dietrich, a Topeka Republican.

Abortion and expansion had both hung over the session since it began in January.

Anti-abortion activists wanted to pass an amendment asserting the state constitution doesn't guarantee the right to an abortion. They were keen to pass the measure this year, after the Kansas Supreme Court last spring ruled the state constitution includes the right to end a pregnancy.

For Medicaid expansion supporters, a deal struck by Kelly and Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning gave hope that this would finally be the year Kansas extended health coverage to some 130,000 residents. Victory appeared closer than it had in years.

But the issues became bound together in early February after the House fell four votes short of the margin needed to place the amendment on the August primary ballot. After the failed vote, Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, vowed to block movement of Medicaid in her chamber until the House advanced the amendment.

And that's where things stood for several weeks until the last few days, when lawmakers began focusing exclusively on the coronavirus response and trying to quickly adjourn.

No one really knows what happens now.

"It's beyond our control and we just pray that everyone is safe and we want legislators to make wise decisions and do what's best for Kansans," said Brittany Jones, director of advocacy for the Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, which supports the amendment.

Jeanne Gawdun, a lobbyist for Kansans for Life, said the organization is taking everything "day by day" and that the first priority has to be keeping Kansans safe.

Kansans for Life remains committed to passing the amendment, but she said it's "certainly a possibility" that the measure won't be on either the August or November ballot and that work on it will have to resume in January.

"I think the Legislature has to do what's best to combat coronavirus and if that means they don't come back it's got to be in the best interest of the state of Kansas," Gawdun said. "Whatever happens in terms of if they decided to come back or not we will just continue doing what we are doing."

'Nothing is ever dead in the legislature'

Rachel Sweet, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said there's always concern lawmakers will try again to pass the amendment if they return to Topeka later this spring. Legislators should remain focused on the current public health crisis, she said.

The Legislature should have already left town, she said, adding that lawmakers wasted time trying to curb Kelly's emergency powers during the pandemic. Legislators spent the better part of two days this week debating exactly how far Kelly should be able to go, and at one point the Senate voted to prohibit her from restricting the movement of people in the months ahead.

"We have politicians who want to write bills about women's health care when they're not doctors and we have legislators who want to limit the power of public health officials to do their jobs," Sweet said.

For Medicaid expansion proponents, the coronavirus is the latest evidence that Kansas needs to increase eligibility for the program. As the virus sweeps the country, Kansas is one of just 14 states that hasn't expanded.

Tens of thousands of residents live in a coverage gap, making too little to qualify for Medicaid but too much to receive subsidies for coverage in the federal exchange. April Holman, director of the pro-expansion Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, said those in the gap are less likely to have a primary care physician they can turn to if they become ill.

"We need every tool at our disposal to get through this unprecedented health and economic crisis. We need Medicaid expansion now more than ever," Holman said in a statement. "In the interest of the health, safety and economic well-being of all Kansans, we urge lawmakers to come back to Topeka when it is safe to do so and to pass Medicaid expansion."

If lawmakers return on April 27 as scheduled, potentially anything is back on the table.

"Nothing is ever dead in the Legislature," Sen. Dennis Pyle, a Hiawatha Republican, said.

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