Kansas State Capitol by The White Pelican (CC)

A bill in the Kansas legislature is taking aim at reducing abortions by remaking the tax code. The bill would halt tax deductions normally reserved for medical expenses when they involve an abortion. Supplemental insurance that is purchased to cover abortions would also not be tax deductible. Sales taxes would also be imposed on the drugs used in abortions. In addition, contributions to Planned Parenthood would no longer be tax deductible.

The bill also forbids any state employee from performing an abortion on state property. This is particularly troublesome for the University of Kansas, which faces a loss of accredidation for its obstetrics and gynecology program.

The bill also requires doctors to inform women seeking an abortion that doing so will increase their risk of breast cancer. This is complete and total fiction. There are no correlations between abortion and breast cancer. In their attempt to limit abortions, pro-life advocates have taken to distorting science for their own purposes.

Yet the most galling part of this bill is with rape victims. There is no provision in the bill that allows women who are victims of rape or incest to still claim a tax deduction after undergoing an abortion. Indeed, the loss of tax deductions means that a raped woman who wants an abortion will have to pay higher taxes. Talk about a double insult to one’s being, well, this is it.

Add in the fact that sales taxes must now be imposed on drugs used for the procedure and rape victims are going to be doubled taxed: First, by paying sales tax for an abortion; Second, by not being able to deduct the abortion or that tax from their income.

What this means, besides the increased financial burden on women, is that the state of Kansan will now begin to make money by women having abortions. That should be troubling for pro-lifers, but filling the state coffers from taxes on abortions doesn’t appear to trouble them.