WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - Now that Texas has banned abortions in most cases after six weeks of pregnancy, many people are wondering if other states will soon do the same.
Kansans will have a big choice to make in August of next year on that topic. A vote in 2022 will decide what the state constitution says about your rights to an abortion in Kansas.
"As things currently stand, there is a right to abortion in Kansas," says Sharon Brett, legal director of the ACLU of Kansas.
Brett says voters across Kansas will determine whether the state's constitution will maintain a person's right to an abortion.
"The ballot initiative that will be up for a vote in August of 2022 essentially would change the Kansas constitution," she says. "It would make explicit in the constitution that there is no right to bodily autonomy. So law makers could then pass a law that significantly restricts abortion services here because there would not be an argument under the Kansas constitution that there is a right to access those services inherent in the constitution itself."
Brett says that could spell a big change for Kansans.
"It means that the Kansas legislature could attempt to enact very restrictive measures on abortion services similar to what was recently enacted in Texas," she says.
Texas's abortion law is already having an impact on the state of Kansas.
"We know that clinics in Kansas have seen an increase in calls for their services and it's a real concern," she says.