Legislation that would have provided a financial boost to anti-abortion pregnancy centers and prevented officials fighting outbreaks of contagious diseases from prohibiting public gatherings or ordering infected people to isolate themselves was vetoed Friday by Gov. Laura Kelly.
The two vetoes will likely stand because lawmakers have adjourned for the year, barring any attempt at overriding them.
The anti-abortion measure would have granted up to $10 million a year in new state income tax credits to donors to the more than 50 centers across the state that provide free counseling, classes, supplies and other services to pregnant people and new parents to discourage abortions.
Lawmakers included it in a wide-ranging tax bill that also included an expansion of existing tax credits for adoption expenses and purchases from businesses that employ disabled workers. Kelly vetoed the entire bill.
House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, accused Kelly in a statement of a "political bias against helping vulnerable new mothers.”
Even if lawmakers still had a chance to override Kelly's veto, they didn't pass the tax bill initially with the two-thirds majorities required.
The other bill Kelly vetoed would have stripped local officials of their authority to prohibit public gatherings and repealed a requirement that local law enforcement officers enforce orders from public health officials. Those officials also would have lost their authority to order quarantines for infected people.
The head of the state health department, appointed by the governor, would have lost the power to issue orders and impose new health rules to prevent the spread of disease or to order people to get tested or seek treatment for infectious diseases.
Kelly's veto message said Kansas has been a pioneer in public health policy. A century ago the state's top health official, Dr. Samuel Crumbine, was known internationally for campaigning against unsanitary, disease-spreading practices such as spitting on sidewalks and having common drinking cups on railroads and in public buildings.
“Yet lawmakers continue trying to undermine the advancements that have saved lives in every corner of our state," Kelly wrote.
The bill also would have prevented the head of the state health department from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for children entering school or day care — something Kelly's administration has said it doesn't plan to do. State and local officials also would not have been able to cite a person's lack of vaccination as a reason for recommending that they isolate themselves.