Sam Brownback signs anti-abortion bills as part of so-called ‘culture of life’

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Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed into a law an anti-abortion bill requiring doctors to get permission from both parents before performing an abortion on a minor. The other ceremonial signing (because Brownback already signed the bill last week) puts further restrictions on abortions after 22 weeks, on the disputed notion of “fetal pain.”

Really, with a Republican-led Legislature and a Republican governor with a pen ready to sign anti-abortion legislation, you gotta wonder why they don’t just go balls-out and ban the procedure. (As my colleague Peter Rugg pointed out earlier this year, Kansans for Life didn’t want lawmakers to get too carried away.) But here we are with dried ink on paper and two new laws that restrict, but don’t outright ban. This is somehow creating, in the supposed logic of “abortion equals murder,” a “culture of life”? I’m sure everyone has a nice photo op to show for it.