Last week, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) approved a package of stringent abortion restrictions, including a “personhood” clause that redefines life as beginning at fertilization — a so-called “trigger” that would effectively outlaw abortion in the state if the Supreme Court ever were to overturn Roe v. Wade. The new law also requires doctors to tell women about a scientifically disputed link between abortion and breast cancer, blocks tax breaks for abortion providers, and bans abortions solely based on the gender of the baby.

Now, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is warning lawmakers that his office will need significant funding to effectively defend those new abortion restrictions in court. Schmidt has requested a $500,000 increase to fund the legal battle. And that’s on top of the nearly $800,000 that Schmidt’s office already spent last year to defend the harsh anti-abortion laws that the state enacted in 2011 — which would push Kansas well over $1 million dollars in abortion-related legal fees over the past two years alone.

During this legislative session, anti-choice state legislators have made a particularly strong push to enact abortion restrictions that test the boundaries of Roe v. Wade. In Arkansas, Gov. Mike Beebe (D) vetoed an extreme 12-week abortion ban, explaining that the legislation “blatantly contradicts the United States Constitution” and he was wary to incite an expensive legal battle, but GOP lawmakers overrode him to enact the measure anyway. North Dakota approved an even stricter ban, cutting off abortion access after just six weeks, and are already preparing to spend $400,000 to defend it in court.

Kansas’ attorney general is also requesting additional funds to defend other controversial state laws, including a measure to require drug testing for some welfare recipients and a pro-gun law that stipulates the federal government has no power to regulate firearms. But he told lawmakers in a memo that he anticipates the abortion fight will be the most expensive.

An anti-abortion activist in Iowa is currently under fire for his recent comments that “it will be a blessing to the babies” if someone shoots the employees who recently re-opened Dr. George Tiller’s former abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas. Now, he’s being forced to clarify that he didn’t intend to encourage anyone to commit murder, and a major anti-abortion group in his state is publicly distancing itself from him.

Dave Leach, who has previously been questioned by the FBI after suggesting that other murders of abortion providers have been justified, posted his comments on YouTube earlier this month. The YouTube post consists of a recorded phone conversation between Leach and a second man who Leach identifies as Scott Roeder — who shot and killed Dr. Tiller in 2009 and is currently serving a life sentence in prison.

In the recording, Leach discusses the fact that Tiller’s former clinic has now been re-opened to the public, and speculates about what would happen if the clinic’s new owners were killed in the same way that Tiller was. “If someone would shoot the new abortionists, like Scott shot George Tiller…hardly anyone will appreciate it but the babies,” he says. “It will be a blessing to the babies. Everyone else will panic. Of all places to open up a killing office, to reopen the one office in the United States more notorious for decades than any other is an act of defiance against God and the last remaining reverence for human life.”

The man who Leach identifies as Roeder laughs in response. He says that Julie Burkhart, the women’s health advocate who spearheaded the effort to turn Tiller’s old property into the South Wind Women’s Clinic, has made herself into a shooting target. “To walk in there and reopen a clinic, a murder mill where a man was stopped, it’s almost like putting a target on your back — saying, ‘Well, let’s see if you can shoot me,’ ” he says in the recording. The man went on to quote another right-wing activist who once predicted that the abortion industry would end if 100 abortionists were shot. He says, since eight have been killed over the past several years, “we’ve got 92 to go” and Burkhart might be number nine.

In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Leach attempted to clarify that he does not actually wish any harm on abortion providers. “I’m 67 years old. I don’t know anything about guns,” he said, claiming that his statements do not represent a call to action against doctors and he actually favors banning abortion through the courts.

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Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) has signed a stringent anti-abortion bill that blocks tax breaks for abortion providers, requires doctors to tell women about the disputed link between abortion and breast cancer, and defines life as beginning at conception in the state constitution. However, despite the fact that the omnibus legislation is 70 pages long, it does not necessarily explicitly state everything that the Republican governor wishes to convey on the abortion issue.

Before Brownback signed HB 2253 into law at a ceremony at the statehouse on Friday, an AP photo reveals that he made a few additions of his own in his notes on the bill. He typed out some phrases — “building a culture of life,” and “all human life is sacred” — that he ended up using in his speech to abortion opponents before approving the legislation, and he also scribbled “JESUS + Mary” at the top of the paper (second enlarged image via Gawker):

Of course, this is hardly the first time a politician has invoked religious belief to justify their opposition to legal abortion rights, regardless of the historical separation of church and state in the United States. That’s partly because the anti-choice community has worked hard to brand reproductive freedom as entirely antithetical to the Christian faith. Catholic lawmakers in particular are often hostile to abortion rights even when they are more moderate on other social issues.

But even though Brownback may invoke the Christian faith as he approves some of the harshest abortion restrictions in the nation, his position isn’t necessarily representative of the Christian coalition in the United States. Reproductive rights aren’t actually always in sharp opposition to religion. People of faith support women’s access to contraception, and most religious groups don’t want to overturn Roe v. Wade. In fact, over 75 percent of white Protestants — along with 65 percent of black Protestants and 63 percent of white Catholics — support women’s constitutional right to legal abortion services.

Last week, Dr. George Tiller’s former abortion clinic re-opened its doors to the Kansas public, a huge victory for the women in Wichita who haven’t had access to a nearby clinic since Tiller’s murder in 2009. One the heels of that step forward, however, the state’s anti-abortion lawmakers are working hard to pull Kansas yet another step back.

The Kansas legislature has approved a sweeping anti-abortion bill that would ban Planned Parenthood from teaching sex ed in public schools, require doctors to give women biased information about a disputed link between abortion and breast cancer, level costly taxes on abortion providers, and define life as beginning “at fertilization” in the state constitution. The HB 2253 measure now heads to Gov. Sam Brownback (R), who is expected to sign it into law.

According to women’s health advocates, the “personhood” clause that would redefine life at conception is one of the most problematic pieces of HB 2253. As it’s written, it acknowledges the protections under Roe v. Wade and wouldn’t ban abortions in the state immediately. But that type of language is called a “personhood trigger,” specifically intended to make it easier for the state to totally outlaw abortion services if the Supreme Court ever overturns Roe and leaves abortion rights to the states:

If the bill is signed into law, Kansas will become the eighth state declaring that life begins at fertilization, said Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager of the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, which researches abortion-related laws nationwide.

While it would not supplant Kansas law banning most abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy, it does set the state up to more swiftly outlaw all abortions should the U.S. Supreme Court revisit its 1973 ruling making abortion legal, Nash said.

“It’s a statement of intent and it’s a pretty strong statement,” Nash said. “Should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade or should the court come to some different conclusion, the state legislature would be ready, willing and able to ban abortions.”

HB 2253 is a 70-page package of abortion restrictions that failed to advance last year — but, after anti-choice Republicans won big majorities in the Kansas legislature in the 2012 election, state lawmakers have been able to successfully push it through this year. Similar situations are also unfolding in Arkansas and North Dakota, where recently-elected Republican majorities have significantly advanced the anti-choice agenda with harsh abortion restrictions that directly flout Roe v. Wade.

GOP lawmakers, who have typically attempted to indirectly undermine women’s right to choose without openly challenging the constitutional right to an abortion, have become more open about their goal to strike down Roe during this legislative session. Republicans are gearing up for legal fights they hope will land the abortion issue back in the Supreme Court — and if it does, states like Kansas will be prepared to move swiftly to use their “personhood” clauses to outlaw abortion altogether.

The Wichita Eagle reports that a bill to legalize switchblade and stiletto knives passed the Kansas Senate on Wednesday “[w]ith little discussion and no dissent.” If passed by the state House and signed into law, it would remove the knives from the state’s banned weapons list — although under a 1958 federal law, the manufacture, sale, or possession of switchblades in interstate commerce will remain prohibited, and the knives will continue to be banned from federal and tribal facilities and lands.

One lawmaker claimed the current ban is mostly due to the stigma attached to the weapon’s name:

“It (the word switchblade) sounds dangerous and negative,” said Rep. Sue Boldra, R-Hays. “However, living in America, I still believe that a law-abiding citizen has many rights.”

In fact, abortion stigma has made that sentiment equally true of the word “abortion,” leading many states to enact laws that curtail women’s rights and their ability to make their own health care decisions. But the similarities between these arguments didn’t stop Rep. Boldra and many of her conservative colleagues from voting for a 70-page omnibus anti-abortion bill currently making its way through the Kansas legislature. That measure threatens to outlaw all abortions by redefining life in the state Constitution with “personhood trigger” in case Roe v. Wade is overturned, requires doctors to misinform patients about the medical risks of abortions, and lacks exceptions for victims of rape or incest seeking to terminate a pregnancy.

Kansas is hardly unique in its efforts to make it harder for women to have control over their own health care choices — many GOP-controlled state legislatures have been picking away at constitutionally protected abortion rights, be it through TRAP laws intended to force abortion clinics to close or heartbeat bills that would effectively outlaw abortion before most women even know they are pregnant.

Thanks to these types of legislation, there are now a number of states where it’s easier to get a gun than an abortion. In Kansas, it may soon be easier to get a switchblade.

Women living in the largest city in Kansas haven’t had access to a nearby abortion clinic for the past four years, ever since Dr. George Tiller was gunned down by an anti-abortion activist in 2009. But that’s about to change this week, as the building that housed Dr. Tiller’s former clinic re-opens its doors as the South Wind Women’s Center.

Getting to this point has been a long battle. Dr. Tiller’s murder is perhaps the most prominent illustration of anti-abortion harassment, and that type of conflict between women’s health advocates and abortion opponents certainly hasn’t been totally diffused since his death. As clinic owner Julie Burkhart has prepared to begin operating the South Wind Women’s Center, anti-choice activists have attempted to block her at every turn — contesting the building’s zoning permits, attempting to persuade contractors not to work on the construction, and even protesting outside of Burkhart’s home.

And they show no signs of letting up. Even though abortion opponents haven’t been able to successfully block the clinic from opening, they still intend to focus their efforts on forcing it close its doors:

“They can try to pretend it’s a full-service women’s center, but it’s just an abortion clinic,” said Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue, a national anti-abortion group based in Wichita. “And they’re going to go out of business, because we’re going to make sure that it’s not economically feasible to run it.” [...]

Newman was unapologetic for the tactics, saying that they were legal and that they would continue. But Burkhart and other abortion-rights supporters say they go too far. Burkhart said that she had been stalked and that demeaning fliers containing her picture and address had been distributed in her neighborhood.

Protesters have demonstrated outside Burkhart’s house, and a pastor recently put a sign in her yard depicting an aborted fetus and the words, “Where’s your church?”

After initially struggling to find abortion doctors willing to practice in a city that carries the legacy of Dr. Tiller’s murder, Burkhart has recruited three doctors who will provide abortion services up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. The new clinic will differ from Tiller’s because it will also provide a range of other types of reproductive care — including family planning services, cancer screenings, STD treatment, pregnancy and lactation consultations, miscarriage counseling, and adoption referrals.

But Burkhart is fully aware that the anti-abortion activism directly targeted at her clinic may undermine her work. With so much controversy drummed up around the abortion services at the clinic, some potential patients may be reluctant to patronize the South Wind Women’s Center for other types of health care. “The $10 million question for us is whether women, if they see protesters out there, will come in for their Pap smear,” she explained to the Kansas City Star.

Tightening the security around the clinic has been a top priority for Burkhart, and other abortion rights groups will also be closely monitoring the unfolding situation in Wichita. Over the past several months, women have started calling the clinic to see when they can schedule appointments, and Burkhart is committed to making sure they receive the health care they need.

The Kansas legislature is advancing an omnibus abortion bill that would, among other things, define life as beginning at conception in the state constitution and place unnecessary restrictions on abortion providers in the state. HB 2253 has already passed the House, and looks poised to gain enough support to sail through the Senate — but only after Republicans rejected several key amendments to soften the measure, including a provision to add exceptions for rape and incest to the state’s existing abortion restrictions. Top Republicans decried those provisions as “little gotcha amendments.”

Senators discussed the bill for more than two hours on Monday. There were several proposed amendments up for debate — a rape and incest exception, a provision ensuring that women won’t be prosecuted for using birth control even if the state officially redefines life with a “personhood” amendment, and a measure to remove HB 2253′s requirement that doctors tell women about a scientifically disputed link between abortion and breast cancer. All of them were rejected.

“These amendments are little gotcha amendments,” Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce (R) said during the floor debate. “I’m getting a little irritated at it.”

State Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook (R) explained she opposed the rape and incest exception because it would apply not just to HB 2253, but also to the existing abortion laws in Kansas. That means it would extend an exception in the cases of rape and incest to current state restrictions banning most abortions after 22 weeks, preventing private health insurance from covering abortion services, and requiring doctors to obtain parental consent before performing an abortion for a minor. “This language would completely undo 10 to 20 years of abortion legislation,” Pilcher-Cook said.

In fact, such an amendment wouldn’t “undo” state-level abortion restrictions at all. Exceptions in the cases of rape, incest, and preserving the life of the woman are still extremely narrow, and don’t change the fact that restrictions on reproductive care are still imposed on the majority of women. Those small exemptions have become somewhat of a national standard. The federal government, 32 states, and the District of Columbia all offer exceptions in the cases of life endangerment, rape, or incest in their bans on public funding for abortion. Americans also overwhelmingly support abortion access for victims of rape and incest.

But for Kansas Republicans, it’s too politically contentious to ensure, for instance, that a minor who has been sexually abused by a family member doesn’t have to seek parental consent to terminate a resulting pregnancy. “This is political hijinks,” Pilcher-Cook said. “We should be focused on the bill instead of trying to make political points.”