Pro-Choice Group Trust Women Plans To Aid Moderate Senators in Kansas Republican Primary

Kansas Gov. San Brownback

A pro-choice group that worked with an abortion doctor who was gunned down in 2009 will be assisting Republican Kansas state senators in their bid to defeat conservative challengers in the August primary.

Trust Women, a Wichita-based group headed by Julie Burkhart, will provide campaign assistance to moderate Republican senators in what has become an intraparty battle in the Kansas GOP. Burkhart worked with the political action committee of Dr. George Tiller, who was fatally shot in church in 2009 because he was known for performing late-term abortions.

The split within the Kansas GOP has taken on increasing importance since 2011 with moderate Republican senators regularly uniting with Democrats to block proposals from the more conservative House and Gov. Sam Brownback (R).

"If Brownback gets his way and flips these seats, we know what he's tried to do in the House," Burkhart said, citing several abortion-related proposals that have originated in the lower chamber.

Brownback has told HuffPost that he is not involved in the primaries, which has been noted by several of the challengers. Burkhart disagrees, saying she believes Brownback is behind the effort to elect more conservative candidates.

While both House and Senate have passed several bills to restrict abortion laws since Brownback's 2011 inauguration, the Senate has blocked several anti-abortion bills this year. Senators blocked the state's sweeping 69-page bill, which would have protected doctors from lawsuits linked to withholding medical information from women that could lead them have an abortion. It also would have allowed a sales tax on a procedure.

The Senate is locked in a battle with the House over a bill that would allow doctors statewide to refuse to perform an abortion on religious grounds then not refer women to another doctor.

Burkhart said her group will provide campaigning assistance to moderate candidates in several ways, including recruiting college interns to work on races around the state leading up the August primary. She said the group also will sponsor roundtable discussions for women to discuss the issues and politics behind the choice movement in Kansas.

The abortion issue is one of many that will decide the Kansas Senate primaries. The others include education funding, the selection process for appeals court judges, the future of the state's tax code and state strip-club policy. Senators facing primaries include the top leadership in the chamber.

Burkhart stressed that laws written in the 1990s, which limited where abortions could be performed, but allowed the procedure in the state could be threatened by the current political climate.

"Back in the early 90s, the Kansas legislature crafted a very balanced, thoughtful bill that addressed a woman's right to abortion care," she said. "That's what we saw until 2011. Dr. George Tiller made his practice in Kansas and he ended up serving women who had problems during pregnancy. We had laws supporting his ability to do that. It allowed him to serve women."

Burkhart said she believes that era ended with Brownback's 2010 election. Brownback pledged in his campaign to sign any pro-life bill that reached his desk.

"As long as we have a governor who does not respect women's rights and blatantly allows his agenda to move forward, we will continue to see bills that restrict women's rights," she said.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[C Winebrinner]

11:19 AM on 04/30/2012

As a Kansan, and a Democrat, I think this is a great idea.
I switched my registration to the Democrat Party right after Sam's first State of the State address, when he revealed his radical right leanings.

When I told my mother, she acted like I was renouncing my faith and taking up Satanism. This is fairly typical of most of the older generations in the state.

We don't have enough people in the state who are willing to even look at the Dem side of the ticket, let alone run for the offices, so our only real option to get moderates into the State legislature is by voting them in during the primaries.

Many of the people who are running for office as moderate Republicans were voted out in previous primary elections in favor of Tea Party hard right wing candidates, to the current dismay of the electorate, who now realize they collectively voted the inmates into office at the asylum!

Now they have their eyes wide open, and are ready to throw out all of those people who lied and ran with a hidden agenda.

Kansans prefer sensibility in their legislature, not radicalism. And we really aren't worried about where the sensibility comes from, as long as it is honest.

[realsurfin]

02:52 PM on 04/10/2012

Its a bad move.. they should send the GOP home... they are pathological lairs. Just because they portray themselves to be moderate does not mean they will not cave in to the tea party pressure.

THIS YEAR SEND THE GOP AND REPUBLICANS PINK SLIPS... FIRE THEM LIKE MITT ROMNEY WOULD FIRE YOU IF HE COULD MAKE A BUCK DOING IT.... VOTE THEM OUT LOCALLY AND FEDERALLY AND DO NOT LET THEM STEAL THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND THE ELECTION.

[warriorforwomen]

07:15 AM on 04/10/2012

I just have to say, the comments below are awesome and call attention to the many aspects of living in Kansas... It was honestly very nice to read them.

[Clevelandinwi]

04:55 AM on 04/10/2012

Couldn't someone stick brawnbuck in Leavenworth and throw away the key. This guy will keep Kansas in the nineteenth century forever.

[MissouriModerate]

02:53 AM on 04/10/2012

Kansas has a GOP food fight....I love it! The state has gone so far right that I wondered how long it would be before they realized just how lost they were. Without Missouri, their businesses would suffer...no international airport, no major cultural attractions, and no partner in economic growth. They've already lost Boeing; if I were looking for a place to bring new jobs, it wouldn't be Kansas. There are a lot of good people there, no doubt, but the extremism is not an attraction for growing an economy. When thinking Kansas, most people think "backward." It might not be fair, but it is the perception. The priorities in KS are the same ones that are bringing the GOP to a breaking point, especially with women.

[warriorforwomen]

07:13 AM on 04/10/2012

you nailed it MOModerate. Thank you for this comment. It made my day

[MissouriModerate]

08:23 PM on 04/11/2012

Thanks...I was expecting some negative backlash...it still may come. I remember when there were many moderate Republicans in Kansas and progessives, as well. Now, school districts in KS are fighting for survival. F&F!!

[maxfax]

10:17 PM on 04/09/2012

"she believes Brownback is behind the effort to elect more conservative candidates. ..." She believes correctly.

[cheo]

10:03 PM on 04/09/2012

Kudos to Julie Burkhart.

[Bill Jones123]

08:22 PM on 04/09/2012

Get out of my bedroom and I will get out of your gun cabinet.

Deal?

[Edy Williams]

07:23 PM on 04/09/2012

Trayvon Martin should have a RESPOSE in his behalf, think millions feel : he earned it!