Commentary
Legislative Update: Kansas
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The Do No Harm team has been busy crisscrossing the country this spring, hard at work partnering with policymakers and allies to champion our ideas in the states. One of those states is Kansas, where the Do No Harm team made significant headway pushing back on the woke takeover of healthcare.
After Do No Harm Board Chairman Dr. Stanley Goldfarb testified in front of the Kansas state legislature on February 1, legislators advanced three important reforms that are headed to Governor Laura Kelly’s desk in the form of two bills. Here is a short summary of each:
SB 26: Thanks to significant work by Senator Beverly Gossage and Representative Susan Humphries, this bill creates the Kansas Child Mutilation Prevention Act aimed at protecting children from the harmful, life-changing impacts of sex reassignment surgeries.
The bill would:
- Permit an individual who had sex reassignment procedures performed as a child to bring a civil lawsuit against the physician who performed the procedure
- Define the medically verifiable disorders that would not qualify for civil litigation
- Establish the cap on monetary damages that could be sought and awarded
In addition, SB 26 would require the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts to revoke the license of a physician who performed a childhood sex reassignment service.
HB 2184: Thanks to the strong leadership by Senate President Ty Masterson, Speaker Dan Hawkins, and Majority Leader Chris Croft, and tireless efforts from Rep. Steven Howe and Senator J.R. Claeys, two important provisions were included in the state’s general budget bill.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) reforms to the Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board:
- This bill mandates that no fiscal expenditures will be allowed by the agency to require any training, education, or instructional program that includes DEI, Critical Race Theory, or related content as a condition of licensure or permits.
- The Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board was headed in the opposite direction, and testified that they had ”voted to request statutory language to decrease the required number of continuing education hours in diagnosis and treatment from 6 hours to 3 hours and to add language for a new requirement of 3 hours in diversity training for all licensees.”
- Other medical boards testified that they do not currently (a do not plan to) require DEI training for licensees–they know the legislature is now watching.
- This reform is applicable for fiscal years ending June 30, 2024 and June 30, 2025 (any policies included in general budgets are not considered permanent but are active for the following two fiscal years after the budget is approved).
- Visit page 10 for more information on this specific provision).
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) reforms for the Board of Regents at any publicly funded Kansas institution of higher education:
- This bill mandates that no publicly funded fiscal expenditures will be allowed by any postsecondary educational institution to:
- “Compel, require, induce or solicit, encourage or coerce any applicant, employee, student or contractor” to:
- Endorse or oppose any ideology
- Provide a statement detailing their experience, commitment to, or expertise in DEI or any ideology
- Provide preferential consideration to an applicant, employee, student, or contractor because of such a commitment, endorsement, or statement
- It also mandates that each Institution’s Office of General Counsel provide a compliance report on these provisions to the Director of Legislative Research and the Attorney General.
- “Compel, require, induce or solicit, encourage or coerce any applicant, employee, student or contractor” to:
- These statements were required for positions such as a Professor of Practice for Clinical Child Psychology at University of Kansas, Assistant Professor of Biology Forensics at Washburn University, and Professor of Pharmacology at Kansas State University.
- This reform is applicable for fiscal years ending June 30, 2024 and June 30, 2025 (any policies included in general budgets are not considered permanent but are active for the following two fiscal years after the budget is approved).
- Visit page 257 (h) (1) for more information on this specific provision.
These reforms are tremendous strides forward in the effort to keep discrimination out of medicine and to protect children. While SB 26 and HB 2184 successfully passed the Kansas House and Senate, they could still be vetoed by Governor Kelly. Stay tuned for more information on potential legislative veto overrides should this occur.