Kansas proposal would apply criminal laws to unborn children

The proposal would treat an unborn child as a person or human being under several listed criminal laws, including homicide and certain battery laws. The text defines an unborn child as a living human organism in the uterus at any stage from fertilization to birth. The text says the same defenses and due-process protections that apply when a victim was born alive would apply. These provisions would apply only to conduct on or after July 1, 2026.

The proposal would allow a wrongful-death claim for the death of an unborn child and remove legal abortion as an exception to such a claim. The text defines an unborn child as a living human organism in the uterus at any stage from fertilization to birth. The text retains exceptions for an unintentional death resulting from life-saving procedures with reasonable steps, if available, to save the unborn child, or from a spontaneous miscarriage. These provisions would apply only to conduct on or after July 1, 2026.