photo by: Associated Press

The Kansas Statehouse stands against the sky as the sun sets in the distance Monday, April 27, 2020, in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

New laws that range from the definition of male and female to testing for a lethal drug to abortion pill regulations took effect in Kansas this month.

It’s unclear how many of them will survive likely court challenges.

The new statutes reflect the Legislature’s increasingly aggressive approach to America’s culture wars — with a particular focus on restricting, rather than recognizing, transgender rights — over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s sometimes toothless objections.

But lawmakers also found some ways to find bipartisan bargains, like legalizing fentanyl test strips as a way to reduce overdose deaths.

Here are some of the most consequential new laws in Kansas:

‘Women’s Bill of Rights’

Men and women are now defined by their sex assigned at birth.

But it appears the true ramifications of the law will need to be resolved in court.

Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach has decided to sue Kelly’s administration after the governor announced the law would not change how Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Department or Revenue issue identification.

The state agencies will continue to allow residents to change the gender on their birth certificates and IDs. Kobach had previously said the new law meant the state must reverse gender changes on both.

However, the new law appears to contradict a 2019 federal court ruling. In that case, the court ordered Kansas to allow transgender residents to change their IDs.

Fairness in Women’s Sports Act

Transgender girls and women will no longer be allowed to participate in girls and women’s sports for schools and colleges.

Republican lawmakers argued the law was needed because student-athletes assigned male at birth would have a biological advantage in sports over girls. (Experts say that physical advantage subsides with hormone therapy, particularly if it begins before puberty.)

Kelly initially vetoed the bill — the third time she’d rejected similar legislation in three years. But Republicans rallied enough votes — including one from Democratic Rep. Marvin Robinson — to enact the law. But this law may also be challenged in court.

Meanwhile, the change is not expected to have a widespread impact on Kansas student-athletes.

Jeremy Holaday, a spokesperson for the Kansas State High School Activities Association, said of the 106,000 students participating in the organization’s sports and activities during the 2022-23 school year, there were only three transgender girls, and two of them graduated this past spring.

Legalizing fentanyl test strips

Fentanyl test strips are no longer considered drug paraphernalia. That allows them to be used to detect whether other drugs are laced with deadly fentanyl.

Several attempts to legalize the test strips failed in recent years. But this year, lawmakers heard gut-wrenching testimony from Kansas parents who lost children to drug overdoses, and the change received broad bipartisan support.

When the bill was signed into law, Republican Rep. Stephen Owens said the test strips could help save lives.

“These issues that are so critical,” Owens said, “can be bipartisan issues that we can move forward together to make Kansas a better place.”

Statute of limitations for child sex crimes

Prosecutions of child sex crimes no longer have a statute of limitations. Similar to murder and rape cases, they can now be brought to trial decades after the crime.

Additionally, victims of child sex abuse have until they are 31 years old to pursue civil lawsuits against abusers. Previously, the state required those lawsuits to be filed before the victim turned 21 years old.

Lawmakers considered the change after a Kansas Bureau of Investigation report documented decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the state. The agency also concluded that the state’s statute of limitations hindered criminal prosecutions.

The new law received unanimous support in the Legislature.

Abortion pill ‘reversal’

Doctors are now required to provide patients seeking an abortion with information that claims that the effects of the abortion pill mifepristone can be reversed. The information is medically unsubstantiated, and medical groups argue studies supporting the idea are flawed.

Although the law is on the books, the state won’t enforce it until a court weighs in.

Kobach reached an agreement with abortion providers to wait until the court rules on a request for a temporary injunction. Abortion providers are challenging the law and several others for violating the state constitutional right to an abortion.

Laws restricting abortion access in Kansas are likely to face scrutiny from the Kansas Supreme Court, which ruled in 2019 that the state constitution protects the right to an abortion. Kansas voters also reaffirmed that ruling when they overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment last year that would have effectively reversed the court’s ruling.

— Dylan Lysen reports for Kansas News Service.