Kansas health care providers could face criminal charges over accusations about their care of newborns delivered during certain abortion procedures after the Republican-controlled Legislature on Wednesday overrode Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed their legislation.

The new law, which takes effect on July 1, will require health care providers to “exercise the level of professionalism, care and diligence that would be expected of a provider who is “reasonably conscientious and diligent” in caring for other live births.” Infants born during abortion procedures will need to be taken to hospital. Violation of the law is a felony punishable by up to one year probation for first time offenders.

GOP lawmakers and anti abortion groups pushed the new rule, and other anti-abortion measure even though a decisive vote statewide in August 2022 confirmed abortion rights. Abortion opponents claimed that voters left room for “reasonable restrictions”, while abortion rights legislators said the bills violated voters’ trust.

Kansas’ abortion laws already make it unlikely that the new law will be used in Kansas. Abortion rights activists also believe that the law is designed to create confusion and fear, so doctors won’t provide abortion care to women and they will be afraid to ask for it.

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Elisabeth Smith is the state policy and advocacy manager for Center for Reproductive Rights. The Center defends abortion access. “Doctors, hospitals and clinics who are trying to understand them don’t have a clue what they mean. They don’t even know how a prosecutor will interpret those laws.”

Kansas’ law is similar to those in 18 other states that require such newborns to be taken to hospital. It also penalizes doctors who do not provide the same level of care as other providers. Montana voters rejected the proposed “born-alive” law on November 20, 2022.

Abortion opponents claimed that the new law was a sensible measure to protect newborns.

“We have a death culture,” said Republican state Rep. Ron Bryce of southeastern Kansas, a physician. “The value and importance of life are paramount.”

In the House, the vote to override Kelly’s veto was 87-37 and in the Senate it was 31-9. Two-thirds majority is required.

Jeanne Gawdun is a lobbyist for Kansans for Life – the most influential antiabortion organization in the state. She said that lawmakers “stood united for compassion and human decency.”

Kelly vetoed a bill which would have forced providers to inform patients that an abortion medication can be stopped by using a drug regime that is rejected by major medical groups. She also vetoed the proposal to provide $2 million in tax dollars from the state to abortion-opposing centers that offer free services to encourage women to carry their pregnancies to term.

The House overturned these vetoes with 84-40 votes and 86-38 votes, and the Senate will vote to override them on Thursday.

In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can ban abortions under the U.S. Constitution. Kansas Supreme Court, however, ruled that access to abortion was a fundamental right under Kansas constitution and bodily autonomy. Last year, the statewide referendum — the first after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling — rejected the removal of protection for abortion from the Kansas Constitution.

Kelly’s abortion stance is still considered too left-wing by abortion opponents, despite the vote last year. House Speaker Dan Hawkins (a Wichita Republican) said that Wednesday’s criticism was directed at “the most extreme in the pro abortion movement”.

Rep. Stephanie Clayton of Kansas City, a Democrat from the area, took a restroom break as Rep. Clark Sanders (a Republican from central Kansas) called the veto “egregious”.

She said, “I won’t listen to an old man telling me how my system works.”

New law requires providers to submit annual reports on “alive” infants born during abortion procedures. Kansas, like most states does not collect these statistics.

Abortion opponents claim that hundreds of babies are born during abortion procedures in the U.S. each year. They extrapolate data from the few states that require reports on such births, and from data collected by most Canadian provinces.

Sanders told his co-workers that it was proper to provide medical care to an individual who is a living breathing human being with a beating heart and muscles.

Kansas, however, bans abortions after the 22nd weeks. Since 2016, there have been no reports of abortions beyond that point in Kansas.

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, almost no infants will survive if born before 23 weeks. Some providers induce labor in order to deliver a fetus if the fetus has a serious medical condition, believing that death will follow within minutes or seconds.

Abortion opponents claim that the law is only applicable to abortion procedures. However, abortion rights advocates say that doctors might be concerned that it could be applied more widely and order futile medical treatment for a dying full-term newborn.

Smith, of the Center for Reproductive Rights, described the law as “symbolic in the context of abortion”. “Potentially harmful in limited cases, where people could be affected, at the last moment, with a dying baby.”