Letter to the Editor 7-29-22
Dear Editor,
I recently returned from a panel discussion on the “Value Them Both” Amendment to the Kansas Constitution which will soon be on the ballot at a polling place near you. You may have heard of the proposed amendment, or you may have seen all of the purple and white signs and bumper stickers with the outline of a woman holding a baby in her arms. Concerned citizens and legislators alike have written numerous editorials in every local paper on the amendment some pleading with the voter to vote “yes” or Kansas will become a “destination state for abortions.” At the panel discussion on Saturday, a politician from the Leavenworth area stated adamantly, “Value the Both is our only chance! If Value them Both does not pass, Kansas could see a 1300% increase in abortions!”
This last statement is a partial truth at best. The full truth is that no claims can be made to how much if any VTB will decrease or even hold child murder at bay. More than likely, with or without VTB, Kansas will see an increase in abortions because we have refused to call it what it is, the legalized murder of innocent babies.
One very true statement the VTB promoters keep shouting from the rooftops is that VTB is NOT a ban on abortions, and a ban is NOT the goal. This is why Kansans for Life and the GOP will no longer get another penny of support from me. Along with a large percentage of pro-lifers and all fellow abolitionists, I seek complete and total abolition whether by positive incremental steps or by one immediate action that ends legal murder of innocents once and for all. However, KFL and the rest of the GOP have made it very clear that this is not even a long-term goal. This in my opinion is not serving the people or upholding their oaths of office. It certainly is not standing on the absolute truth of God’s Word and the undeniable right to life in our constitution.
I believe VTB to be an unnecessary, ambiguous, precedent-setting, monumental step in the wrong direction for the state of Kansas. While I am strongly opposed to “regulation of abortion” and this fact alone is enough for me to vote NO, there is another issue I have with this amendment. Remove the regulation of abortion and other specifics of this amendment and insert anything else along with the words “elected state representatives and state senators, may pass laws” and we have created a constitutional problem. Kansas Constitution Article 2 lays out duties, rights, powers, and limits of the legislative branch, NOT the Bill of Rights. We have entered a dangerous realm in State and U.S. history when we begin to create or affirm legislative rights within the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is not the constitutional way to address the overstepping of the KS Supreme Court. VTB does not in any way overturn the court’s erroneous 2019 ruling or keep a rogue court within its constitutional bounds. With VTB, the liberal state court with its extreme leftist agenda will continue to attack past, present, and future pro-life laws. They may in fact do so more with the ambiguity of the amendment. Regardless, the state Bill of Rights is NOT the constitutional way to address the current problem in the separation of powers and is a risky step toward pure democracy or mobocracy. Putting the affirmation of a right for a governing body alone (not an individual right for all equally) to a simple majority vote by the people is mobocracy. Addressing the separation of powers, removing or granting power via the Bill of Rights sets a dangerous precedent on how the state will handle any overreach or power struggle in the future. What is next? In the case of VTB, creating a right for legislators to determine which innocent human life deserves protection and which does not is unconstitutional, not to mention contradictory to biblical principal. This right is reserved for God alone!
Value them Both is a Kansas constitutional amendment that if voted FOR by We The People of Kansas will become the 22nd Bill of Rights. The purpose of the Bill of Rights in the constitution is to create or affirm a specific unalienable right. In this case, the “right” being created or affirmed is “regulation of abortion” or put in another way, making laws that determine when murder is legal and when it is not. This right is being created or affirmed by the legislators of the state. Contrast this “right” with others: 1. Equal rights. All men are possessed of equal and inalienable natural rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 3. Right of peaceable assembly; petition. 6. Slavery prohibited; servitude for conviction of a crime. 11. Liberty of press and speech; libel. 18. Justice without delay. These protect individual rights that are unchanging and do not violate the individual rights of others in the process. The new right, number 22, like COVID vaccines compared to traditional vaccines is an entirely new kind of “right.” It is a right for an elected body, not for an individual. This is something no Bill of Rights has ever done and is entirely experimental, circumstantial, and based on ever-changing human opinion. On top of this, VTB violates the rights of many (the unborn) in order to affirm a right for the few (Kansas legislators).
All political and legal opinions aside and simply based on biblical discernment and constitutional understanding; I believe this amendment to be immeasurably dangerous because it is not God’s way. I believe the potential long-term damages FAR outweigh the promised short-term benefits. While some say, “Don’t pass up the good holding out for the perfect.” I say “Don’t settle for a lie in hopes it will do more good than evil.”
Please take the time to consider your ways; whether or not they align with the ways of God.
Rebekah Amerin
Clifton