To the editor:

The proposed Republican Kansas amendment on abortion is worded ambiguously, but its anti-choice intent calls for a clear “No” in our current referendum. Kansas already has limits on abortion practices. Severe restrictions on abortion imposed lately in some states may or may not become Kansas law. But adopting the amendment would permit abuses of women and girls, in medical settings, airports and border crossings and neighborhoods.

Attitudes of punishment and shaming rule the abortion debates today. We hear nostalgia for the 9th century and also the 1950s! Pregnant women do not think getting an abortion is a jolly way to spend a Thursday. Will Kansans accept a little gas money to surveil one another? Not likely, as most Texans would have said, two or three years ago.

Criminalizing abortion affects mainly women and families living in poverty. The well-to-do can enjoy their trips to coastal states, Canada and Europe. As for Ob-Gyn care, docs and nurses are having to act against their knowledge and training.

“Being pregnant while female” is not a set-up for codified mockery and torture. We, men and women, are better than that. So I will vote “no” to the ambiguous proposition.

Connie C. Price,

Lawrence