TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas’ new Democratic governor on Monday vetoed a measure that would require clinics and doctors to tell their patients about a disputed treatment to stop a medication abortion after a woman has taken the first of two pills.

The action by Gov. Laura Kelly, an abortion-rights supporter, sets up a confrontation with a Republican-controlled Legislature that has had solid anti-abortion majorities for more than two decades. Supporters of the abortion “reversal” bill appeared to have the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override Kelly’s veto once lawmakers return on May 1 from a weekslong break.

Abortion opponents contend the bill ensures that women who harbor doubts about ending their pregnancies will learn that they can stop a medication abortion by taking the hormone progesterone. Abortion-rights supporters say the proposal would force doctors to provide dubious information to their patients.

Kelly said such a requirement would interfere with the relationship between patients and their physicians.

“This unwarranted legislation will create confusion and could be harmful to women’s health,” Kelly said. “The practice of medicine should be left to licensed health professionals, not elected officials.”

Seven states with Republican governors have enacted such laws, starting with Arkansas in 2015, and Oklahoma’s GOP-controlled Legislature recently approved a measure. Kelly was elected last year and took office in January after the state imposed a raft of new abortion restrictions under her Republican predecessors.

Kelly’s veto came after other states, including Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio, have moved to ban abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as the sixth week of pregnancy. Kansans for Life, the state’s most influential anti-abortion group, has long favored an incremental approach and restrictions that it believes will survive court challenges.

Medication abortions using Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, are the most common way of terminating a pregnancy in Kansas, accounting for 61% of the total last year, according to statistics from the state health department.

Supporters of “reversal” laws cite a 2018 study led by an anti-abortion doctor and medical school professor in California and note that progesterone has been used for decades to prevent miscarriages.

Abortion-rights supporters have said that study is flawed and that progesterone’s use for reversing a medical abortion hasn’t been adequately tested. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has disputed the usefulness of the procedure.

Under the Kansas legislation, an abortion clinic would have to display a sign with the abortion reversal notice, and the physician would have to tell a patient in writing that a medication abortion can be reversed. A clinic that failed to post a sign could be fined $10,000, and a doctor who failed to notify a patient could be charged with a misdemeanor for a first offense and a felony for a second.

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CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A St. Louis County judge on Monday refused to lower bail for a former Catholic priest who was previously imprisoned and labeled sexually violent.

Fred Lenczycki, 74, of suburban Chicago, was charged in February with two counts of sodomy for allegedly abusing two boys in the early 1990s at a north St. Louis County parish. He is jailed on $500,000 cash-only bond but was seeking an unspecified reduction.

Lenczycki has admitted abusing up to 30 boys in Illinois, Missouri and California over 25 years, according to court and church files. He was removed from the ministry in 2002, when he was charged with sexually abusing three boys at a church in Hinsdale, Illinois, in the 1980s.

The victims told authorities that “Father Fred” repeatedly molested them, often using the pretense of swaddling them in “Baby Jesus” costumes for pageants that never took place.

He pleaded guilty in 2004 and was sentenced to five years in prison. In 2008, a year before his release from prison, he became the first U.S. priest to be labeled sexually violent when he was committed under Illinois’ Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Gloria Clark Reno was expected to hear testimony from the two alleged Missouri victims, Chris Gensler III, now 37, and Ron Kanady, 38, at a hearing Monday. But prior to the hearing, officials with the Illinois agency that monitors Lenczycki and others classified as sexually violent said it would not be responsible for transporting him to court from his Chicago-area home.

Assistant prosecutor Melissa Price Smith said that if Lenczycki had to take public transportation to St. Louis without supervision, he could be in contact with children.

Based largely on the logistical concern, Reno denied the bond reduction.

Defense attorney Matthew Radefeld said Lenczycki is seeking a re-evaluation to clear himself from the Illinois sexually violent person listing.

In the St. Louis County case, charging documents allege that from 1991 through 1994, Lenczycki repeatedly grabbed one boy’s genitals and tried to force another boy to expose himself.

“I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulder,” Kanady said after the judge’s ruling Monday. Gensler called the ruling “a blessing from God and a step in the right direction for kids who could be exposed to him.”

Victims of clergy sexual abuse have demanded more accountability and transparency from the Catholic church since last year, when a Pennsylvania report detailed seven decades of child sexual abuse by more than 300 predator priests. The Vatican convened a sexual abuse summit in February to hear the testimony of several victims.

In addition to the criminal cases, Lenczycki is named in several lawsuits.

MEXICO, Mo. (AP) — A man has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in a fatal drug deal shooting that started when the victim was forced into a pickup truck at a Columbia motel.

37-year-old Richard Henry II, of Overland, pleaded guilty Monday to voluntary manslaughter in the killing of 30-year-old Leon Wilder III, of Columbia.

Witnesses told investigators that they saw Wilder being forced into a pickup truck in July 2017 after an argument about money. Wilder was near death when he was found along a road near the Boone-Audrain county line.

Investigators found blood in Henry’s truck after spotting the vehicle on surveillance video. Two others pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in the case. Authorities said Henry was the triggerman. His sentencing is set for June 24.

 

Fort Hays State University graduate Addy Tritt, whose story about buying out the Hays Payless store to help Nebraska flood victims went viral, appeared on “The Ellen Degeneres Show” on Monday. The show airs at 4 p.m. CST on CBS.

Ellen surprised Tritt with a game of “Holey Roller” — which Tritt “won.” The prize money Tritt is coming home with is made possible by Cheerios.

Watch below, courtesy www.ellentube.com.

JEFFERSON COUNTY — A registered Kansas sex offender is back in jail after a weekend incident involving a 14-year-old girl.

Early Sunday, the teen’s parents reported her missing, according to Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Herrig. The teen was originally reported abducted by 21-year-old Jacob Cowles, a registered sex offender. “We learned she went willingly and so there was no Amber Alert issued,” said Herrig.

Cowles lives with his parents in Lakeshore Estates. When the two returned to the home, the parents contacted authorities who arrested Cowles, according to Herrig.

He is being held in the Jefferson County Jail on requested charges that include aggravated criminal sodomy; with person/animal by force, indecent liberties w/ child 14-16 years of age and solicit to engage, according to online jail records.

Cowles was expected to make a court appearance in the case Monday, according to the sheriff.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Relatives of a slain Kansas City man say the 25-year-old had been excited about the birth of his first child.

Police haven’t released the name of the man who was shot and killed Saturday. But Dana Pearson identified the victim as his nephew, Jordan Matthews. Relatives say Matthews played drums for a neighborhood church and had been lining his room with baby items.

On Sunday, relatives placed the large pink bear Matthews had been saving for his child on a makeshift memorial on the corner near where he died. Pearson said his nephew “never hurt nobody” and “shouldn’t’ be gone.”

No description of a suspect was available.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 35-year-old Kansas man has been sentenced to prison after his father-in-law died while taking methadone to help the younger man cheat on a drug test.

Justin Jones was sentenced Friday to four years in prison for involuntary manslaughter in the 2017 death of 47-year-old Eric Everts. Both men lived in Baldwin City.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Jones also pleaded guilty in January to distribution of methadone.

As part of his treatment for drug addiction, Jones was required to turn in urine samples containing nothing but methadone, which treats opioid addiction.

Baldwin City investigators said in an affidavit that for months Everts took methadone and provided otherwise clean urine samples, which Jones submitted as his own. Everts was found dead at his home in September 2017.