Kansas
Kansas anti-abortion groups celebrate legislative wins. What that means for patients.
Anti-abortion advocates are celebrating legislative victories in Kansas, where Republican lawmakers successfully passed measures that will force abortion patients to report more information to state officials, make it easier to prosecute people for coercing someone to get an abortion and allot more money to anti-abortion counseling centers.
“Now is the time to utilize these new tools and get to work helping women and saving as many babies from the profit-driven abortion industry as possible,” Jean Gawdun, director of government relations for the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life, said in a news release.
Abortion remains legal in Kansas until 22 weeks gestation after voters in 2022 overwhelmingly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have enabled lawmakers to ban it.
The state already restricts abortion in a number of ways, including requiring minors to get parental consent and limiting which health care providers can offer the procedure. Several other restrictions, like a 24-hour waiting period, are on hold due to an ongoing court case.
But the new laws — passed by Republicans overriding vetoes from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in the final days of lawmaking — will expand those restrictions.
Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, said they’re designed to stigmatize reproductive health care.
“Under the new laws, patients will be confused, resources will be squandered, and people will be interrogated about their reasons for seeking care,” she said in an emailed statement. “We know and trust people to make decisions that are best for them, free from unnecessary burdens, shame, and government coercion.”
Advocates say ‘abortion coercion’ law misses the mark
One law will make it easier to prosecute someone for coercing someone to get an abortion, creating a new felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. The measure was a priority of anti-abortion groups, who say they frequently talk to women who feel pressure to get abortions from partners, family members and sometimes doctors.
“For too many women, the right to choose abortion has become the duty to have an abortion for the benefit of other people,” Gawdun said during a legislative hearing.
But organizations that help victims of domestic violence say they’re disappointed lawmakers rejected calls to broaden the law to address other types of reproductive coercion, like tampering with someone’s birth control or pressuring them into becoming pregnant.
Those types of coercion have shown up more frequently in Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence executive director Michelle McCormick’s work.
“It was much more frequent, in my experience, that a victim or survivor was being pressured into either having children when they wouldn’t want to or having their chosen form of birth control hidden from them,” she said in an interview.
Amanda Meyers, director of the Wichita Family Crisis Center, said abusers sometimes force their partners to have children with them out of a desire to permanently tether them to the other person. She noted that pregnancy is often a particularly dangerous time for victims of domestic violence.
“Probably less than a handful of times have I seen (abortion coercion) arise with my clients,” she said, “but reproductive coercion or coercion around family planning is happening in 90 to 99% of the cases.”
Democratic Rep. Jo Ella Hoye introduced an amendment to address those concerns in a House committee. The Republican-led committee initially approved it, but the amendment was omitted from the Senate version of the bill that lawmakers eventually passed.
McCormick called it a missed opportunity.
“While we were hopeful that the Legislature would have taken the opportunity to address all tactics of reproductive coercion that survivors of domestic and sexual violence experience (those not addressed in this bill or current Kansas law), we are appreciative to those Legislators who responded to to our concerns, asked thoughtful questions, and showed their support for addressing reproductive coercion,” she said in an email.
In a note accompanying her veto of the bill, the governor said she agrees that no one should be coerced into getting an abortion, but said she was concerned with what she described as the bill’s vague language.
“This overly broad language risks criminalizing Kansans who are being confided in by their loved ones or simply sharing their expertise as a health care provider,” Kelly said.
Lawmakers overrode her veto 28-10 in the Senate and 85-40 in the House. In a news release following the votes, Republican House leadership called her veto “negligent” and said they were “proud to stand together against abuses such as sex trafficking and sexual abuse that accompany abortion coercion.”
New questions for abortion patients
Starting July 1, Kansas abortion providers must begin asking patients why they’re getting an abortion, whether they’ve recently experienced domestic violence and information about their current living situation. Providers must then give that information to the state health department, which will publish it in a biannual report.
Officials currently publish an annual report about abortion statistics that includes demographic information about patients’ age, race, marital status and county of residence.
During legislative hearings, proponents of the law said the expanded information would help lawmakers and nonprofit organizations, including anti-abortion counseling centers, better understand why people get abortions in Kansas. They could then, they argued, provide more resources that might reduce abortion rates.
But opponents said the questions are intrusive and serve no medical purpose.
“Voters do not want politicians getting between doctors and their patient by interfering in private medical decisions,” Kelly wrote about her veto of the law last month. “There is no valid medical reason to force a woman to disclose to the legislature if they have been a victim of abuse, rape, or incest prior to obtaining an abortion.”
Lawmakers had just enough votes to override Kelly’s veto — 27-10 in the Senate and 84-41 in the House.
“The Governor’s unreasonable fear of this data collection is nothing but a roadblock to helping serve these vulnerable women better,” Republican House leadership said in a statement.
Wichita-based abortion provider Trust Women denounced the veto override.
“This means that patients from Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri who come to our clinics for care will be subjected to a round of invasive questions that have the potential to hurt their healthcare experience and invade their personal privacy,” the clinic said in a social media post.
Money for anti-abortion groups
Lawmakers also passed measures that will help fund anti-abortion counseling centers by renewing a $2 million annual grant and allotting up to an additional $10 million per year through a sweeping tax credit that will reimburse donors for up to 70% of their charitable contributions to the centers.
The centers, often called “crisis pregnancy centers” or “pregnancy resource centers,” provide free resources like baby supplies and parenting classes to people with unwanted pregnancies. Proponents say they’re a lifeline for pregnant mothers facing financial hardship.
But critics say they sometimes mislead vulnerable women and spread disinformation designed to dissuade them from getting abortions. Health experts say they also sometimes encourage women to obtain unproven medical treatments like “abortion pill reversal,” which major medical groups denounce. (Last year Kansas lawmakers passed a law requiring all doctors to inform abortion patients about the treatment, but a judge temporarily blocked it.)
In a line-item veto, Kelly struck down the $2 million contract renewal. She also vetoed the tax credit law, saying in a statement that it’s inappropriate to direct tax dollars to the “largely unregulated” centers. Lawmakers overrode both actions.
Abortion bills that didn’t pass in Kansas legislative session
Some abortion-related proposals died, including bills that would require Kansans to have an obstetric ultrasound prior to getting an abortion. Kansas already has a law requiring this, but a judge temporarily blocked it due to a lawsuit that alleges the law — which also imposes a 24-hour waiting period and requires providers to give patients information designed to discourage them from getting an abortion — is unconstitutional.
Lawmakers failed to pass bills that would restrict abortion providers from purchasing liability insurance from a state fund and allow children injured during a failed abortion to sue the abortion provider.
Two bills that would ban abortion in nearly all cases were introduced, but did not progress.
Backers say such proposals are symbolic because they would almost certainly violate the Kansas Constitution.
Last week, lawmakers passed a bill that would enable pregnant women to collect child support beginning at conception, a key goal of state and national anti-abortion groups. Reproductive rights groups lobbied against the proposal, raising concerns it could strengthen a legal concept known as “fetal personhood” in Kansas — something legal experts say could lead to future restrictions on abortion, in vitro fertilization and other reproductive health care.
Kelly is expected to veto it, and it’s unclear whether Republicans will have the time — or votes — to override her. The regular legislative session is over, but lawmakers will need to return to the Statehouse for a special session in the coming weeks to pass a tax bill.
Rose Conlon reports on health for KMUW and the Kansas News Service.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) — It’s been a week since the World Cup began in Kansas City, but some local businesses aren’t feeling the expected influx in traffic and are asking for support.
On Thursday, KC2026 provided numbers for the FIFA Fan Festival and the ConnectKC26 transportation system.
From June 11 to June 16, KC2026 said more than 63,000 people attended the FIFA Fan Festival.
There are mixed results for where everyone is from:
- 52% from Kansas or Missouri
- 33% from the United States
- 15% from out of the country
As of 2 p.m. on June 17, ConnectKC26 has a total of 86,540 registered passes.
Breakdown of routes from KC2026:
- Stadium Direct: 57,302
- Regional Direct: 17,284
- Airport Direct: 11,954
As for business traffic, it depends on where you look. Some businesses in the Country Club Plaza said they’ve seen an uptick, especially on the first match day.
“We just had a really fun time with all of the fans, and I think we did a good job preparing for it,” said KC Style Haus Owner, Deserae Minor.
But many businesses are sharing their disappointment online.
‘Ghost town’
Caitlin Benedict, who owns Bisou, a European-style coffee and pastry shop, took to Instagram after shopping at a Crossroads night market.
“We are all in this together, it sucks. It was dead. It’s been dead everywhere,” said Bisou Owner, Caitlin Benedict.
After sharing her disappointment online, she saw an uptick in business on Thursday.
“It’s nice when the community can help out, and you can back up your own hometown at the same time,” said Janet Garciga, who drove in from Lee’s Summit to visit Bisou.
“I don’t want them to just come to Bisou, and I don’t want it to just be for a day. I want them to go everywhere else, and I want them to support everyone else, and consistently, especially for the next month and a half while FIFA is here,” said Benedict.
She heard from businesses experiencing the same issues in Mission, other spots downtown, Kansas City, Kansas, and Overland Park.
Down the road in the Crossroads, Buffalo State Pizza saw fans for the French match on Tuesday.
“But after that, I mean, we even close early on Tuesday because that was, it was dead,” said Buffalo State Pizza Owner, Phillippe Lechevin.
Shopping bags and matchas aren’t filling up at Dear Society either.
“The 10 years that I’ve been here in Kansas City. I have seen a lot of these big events coming into town, and we’ve been told to prepare and get ready for these huge crowds. And to be honest, after the NFL draft and after so many things that I’ve seen in 10 years, I didn’t do anything different,” said Dear Society Owner, Chanel Jezek. “I kind of knew. I had a feeling like we weren’t going to be as busy as they were projecting because they’ve done this to us before.”
Multiple factors = slow traffic
All three, Bisou, Buffalo State Pizza, and Dear Society, said there isn’t really someone to blame, but rather multiple factors that could be part of the issues.
A lot of eateries in town added a 20% automatic gratuity to bills, Bisou and Buffalo State Pizza decided not to take part, but worry that it is keeping locals away.
Visit KC projected 650,000 visitors throughout the entire tournament, and these businesses wonder if the possibility of large crowds and no parking is also keeping residents at home.
“I think we lost a lot of the regular ones. You know, the number was shown earlier back in February, you know, the 600,000 people. People who have the option to work from home, but maybe they didn’t want to deal with the traffic, since there’s no traffic. So hopefully they’re going to come back,” said Lechevin. “People may realize, actually, you know, it’s not as crazy as it is. I can still park in my regular spot and have lunch at my regular spot without being, you know, charged an extra amount.”
Jezek said she’d love to see KC2026 and FIFA add more locally owned businesses on their website so fans know where to find them.
“We are not seeing an increase in traffic on the streets. We are not crowded like they were predicting. You can still come in. You can still support your local businesses, your favorite coffee shops, your favorite places to grab your gifts, or whatever. We’re here. We’re slow. And there are more places to park,” said Jezek.
Benedict said it is an honor to have the World Cup here, but wants to see more honesty and support from leaders.
“I feel like it’s good for our city. It’s recognition. But at the same time, I want leadership to step in and say, okay, we didn’t get as many travelers as we should have,” said Benedict.
These businesses are hopeful that fans, locals, and other owners all come out and support these small shops throughout the metro during the World Cup and beyond.
“I would say just keep coming and supporting us and showing up,” said Jezek.
KCTV5 reached out to Visit KC, but did not have any numbers it could share at this time.
Mayor Quinton Lucas’ office shared the statement below after this story aired on Thursday:
“While the economic impact of a global event of this magnitude will naturally vary by business and by neighborhood, Mayor Lucas is encouraged by what he is hearing from Kansas City’s entertainment and hospitality sectors. Hotels, bars, and restaurants reported strong activity as Kansas City welcomed tens of thousands of guests for the opening match. As we look toward this weekend’s games and the remainder of the tournament, we’ll continue to highlight opportunities for our visitors and residents alike to join in the fun and celebration of this one in a generation moment.”
Businesses are hopeful that the longer the World Cup goes on, the more people will show up. KCTV5 plans to check in with these businesses throughout the tournament to see if traffic picks up.
Copyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.
Cooler temperatures today, but we will keep a chance of thunderstorms going in south-central Kansas this morning. One or two could be strong.
Temperatures stay cooler in southern Kansas thanks to clouds and rain in the area. Warmer temps and sunshine to the north.
Another chance of severe weather will visit Kansas this weekend, with a complex of strong storms rolling across the area Saturday night.
KSN Storm Track 3 Forecast from Meteorologist Jack Maney:
Wichita:
Today: Mostly cloudy. 60% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 80 Wind: NE 8-18
Tonight: Mostly to partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers. Lo: 62 Wind: NE/E 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 85 Wind: E/SE 5-15
Tomorrow Night: Partly to mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 68 Wind: SE 5-15
Wichita Weekly
Sat: Hi: 87 Lo: 73 Partly to mostly cloudy. 50% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 92 Lo: 67 Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 82 Lo: 65 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 84 Lo: 66 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 86 Lo: 68 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 88 Lo: 69 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
SOUTHWEST: Dodge City, Garden City, Liberal, Greensburg, Guymon
Southwest:
Today: Partly to mostly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 84 Wind: NE/E 10-25
Tonight: Mostly to partly cloudy. Lo: 58 Wind: E/SE 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 85 Wind: SE 8-18
Tomorrow Night: Partly to mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 62 Wind: SE 5-15
Southwest Weekly
Sat: Hi: 92 Lo: 66 Mostly cloudy. 40% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 91 Lo: 59 Mostly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 82 Lo: 58 Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 83 Lo: 60 Mostly to partly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 85 Lo: 61 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 89 Lo: 62 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
NORTHWEST: Colby, Goodland, Hill City, Oberlin, McCook
Northwest:
Today: Partly cloudy to mostly sunny. Hi: 86 Wind: NE/E 5-15
Tonight: Mostly clear to partly cloudy. Lo: 61 Wind: E/S 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 86 Wind: S/SE 8-18
Tomorrow Night: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 61 Wind: SE 5-15
Northwest Weekly
Sat: Hi: 90 Lo: 61 Partly to mostly cloudy. 50% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 84 Lo: 55 Mostly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 78 Lo: 56 Mostly to partly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 82 Lo: 58 Partly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 85 Lo: 59 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 87 Lo: 60 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
NORTHCENTRAL: Salina, Great Bend, Hays, Russell, Beloit, Osborne
North Central:
Today: Mostly to partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 83 Wind: NE 8-18
Tonight: Partly cloudy. Lo: 60 Wind: NE/SE 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Hi: 86 Wind: SE 8-18
Tomorrow Night: Partly to mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 66 Wind: SE 5-15
North Central Weekly
Sat: Hi: 88 Lo: 70 Partly to mostly cloudy. 70% chance of showers and storms.
Sun: Hi: 88 Lo: 63 Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of showers and storms.
Mon: Hi: 81 Lo: 62 Mostly to partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
Tue: Hi: 84 Lo: 64 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 86 Lo: 66 Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms.
Thu: Hi: 88 Lo: 67 Partly cloudy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A Kansas fire department is asking people to be more careful about what they throw away.
The Mulvane Fire Department was called to a vehicle fire Wednesday afternoon. The driver of a trash truck had smelled something burning and pulled over to call 911.
When firefighters arrived, they found smoke coming from the back of the truck. In the trash bay, a firefighter discovered a discarded laptop computer with a lithium battery that was heating up.
The department said it was able to remove the battery from the truck and flood the truck with water to cool off the trash. This is the second incident involving a lithium battery crews have responded to this month, according to Mulvane Fire.
Lithium is highly reactive, and when batteries are damaged, they can heat up uncontrollably. The reaction cascades, with the battery getting hotter and hotter until all of the lithium is consumed. In some cases, when exposed to oxygen, lithium can ignite instantly.
The fire department is urging residents to never throw computers or anything with batteries in the trash. Sedgwick County offers this free recycling guide with information on how to properly dispose of a wide variety of household goods and chemicals.
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