diff --git a/Lib/test/buffer_tests.py b/Lib/test/buffer_tests.py
index 6d20f7d..cf54c28 100644
--- a/Lib/test/buffer_tests.py
+++ b/Lib/test/buffer_tests.py
@@ -200,7 +200,13 @@
                          self.marshal(b'abc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r').splitlines())
         self.assertEqual([b'', b'abc', b'def', b'ghi', b''],
                          self.marshal(b'\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r').splitlines())
+        self.assertEqual([b'', b'abc', b'def', b'ghi', b''],
+                         self.marshal(b'\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r').splitlines(False))
         self.assertEqual([b'\n', b'abc\n', b'def\r\n', b'ghi\n', b'\r'],
-                         self.marshal(b'\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r').splitlines(1))
+                         self.marshal(b'\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r').splitlines(True))
+        self.assertEqual([b'', b'abc', b'def', b'ghi', b''],
+                         self.marshal(b'\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r').splitlines(keepends=False))
+        self.assertEqual([b'\n', b'abc\n', b'def\r\n', b'ghi\n', b'\r'],
+                         self.marshal(b'\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r').splitlines(keepends=True))
 
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, self.marshal(b'abc').splitlines, 42, 42)
diff --git a/Lib/test/string_tests.py b/Lib/test/string_tests.py
index d792529..049929c 100644
--- a/Lib/test/string_tests.py
+++ b/Lib/test/string_tests.py
@@ -47,11 +47,12 @@
             return obj
 
     # check that obj.method(*args) returns result
-    def checkequal(self, result, obj, methodname, *args):
+    def checkequal(self, result, obj, methodname, *args, **kwargs):
         result = self.fixtype(result)
         obj = self.fixtype(obj)
         args = self.fixtype(args)
-        realresult = getattr(obj, methodname)(*args)
+        kwargs = self.fixtype(kwargs)
+        realresult = getattr(obj, methodname)(*args, **kwargs)
         self.assertEqual(
             result,
             realresult
@@ -908,7 +909,14 @@
         self.checkequal(['abc', 'def', 'ghi'], "abc\ndef\r\nghi\n", 'splitlines')
         self.checkequal(['abc', 'def', 'ghi', ''], "abc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r", 'splitlines')
         self.checkequal(['', 'abc', 'def', 'ghi', ''], "\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r", 'splitlines')
-        self.checkequal(['\n', 'abc\n', 'def\r\n', 'ghi\n', '\r'], "\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r", 'splitlines', 1)
+        self.checkequal(['', 'abc', 'def', 'ghi', ''],
+                        "\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r", 'splitlines', False)
+        self.checkequal(['\n', 'abc\n', 'def\r\n', 'ghi\n', '\r'],
+                        "\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r", 'splitlines', True)
+        self.checkequal(['', 'abc', 'def', 'ghi', ''], "\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r",
+                        'splitlines', keepends=False)
+        self.checkequal(['\n', 'abc\n', 'def\r\n', 'ghi\n', '\r'],
+                        "\nabc\ndef\r\nghi\n\r", 'splitlines', keepends=True)
 
         self.checkraises(TypeError, 'abc', 'splitlines', 42, 42)
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_userstring.py b/Lib/test/test_userstring.py
index 7a8b932..d5d0c89 100755
--- a/Lib/test/test_userstring.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_userstring.py
@@ -17,11 +17,11 @@
     # Overwrite the three testing methods, because UserString
     # can't cope with arguments propagated to UserString
     # (and we don't test with subclasses)
-    def checkequal(self, result, object, methodname, *args):
+    def checkequal(self, result, object, methodname, *args, **kwargs):
         result = self.fixtype(result)
         object = self.fixtype(object)
         # we don't fix the arguments, because UserString can't cope with it
-        realresult = getattr(object, methodname)(*args)
+        realresult = getattr(object, methodname)(*args, **kwargs)
         self.assertEqual(
             result,
             realresult
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 4f55034..3c2ef37 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -10,6 +10,10 @@
 Core and Builtins
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #13012: The 'keepends' parameter to str.splitlines may now be passed
+  as a keyword argument:  "my_string.splitlines(keepends=True)".  The same
+  change also applies to bytes.splitlines and bytearray.splitlines.
+
 - Issue #7732: Don't open a directory as a file anymore while importing a
   module. Ignore the direcotry if its name matchs the module name (e.g.
   "__init__.py") and raise a ImportError instead.
diff --git a/Objects/bytearrayobject.c b/Objects/bytearrayobject.c
index d365fbc..11a0101 100644
--- a/Objects/bytearrayobject.c
+++ b/Objects/bytearrayobject.c
@@ -2608,11 +2608,13 @@
 is given and true.");
 
 static PyObject*
-bytearray_splitlines(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
+bytearray_splitlines(PyObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 {
+    static char *kwlist[] = {"keepends", 0};
     int keepends = 0;
 
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "|i:splitlines", &keepends))
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "|i:splitlines",
+                                     kwlist, &keepends))
         return NULL;
 
     return stringlib_splitlines(
@@ -2801,8 +2803,8 @@
     {"rsplit", (PyCFunction)bytearray_rsplit, METH_VARARGS, rsplit__doc__},
     {"rstrip", (PyCFunction)bytearray_rstrip, METH_VARARGS, rstrip__doc__},
     {"split", (PyCFunction)bytearray_split, METH_VARARGS, split__doc__},
-    {"splitlines", (PyCFunction)bytearray_splitlines, METH_VARARGS,
-     splitlines__doc__},
+    {"splitlines", (PyCFunction)bytearray_splitlines,
+     METH_VARARGS | METH_KEYWORDS, splitlines__doc__},
     {"startswith", (PyCFunction)bytearray_startswith, METH_VARARGS ,
      startswith__doc__},
     {"strip", (PyCFunction)bytearray_strip, METH_VARARGS, strip__doc__},
diff --git a/Objects/bytesobject.c b/Objects/bytesobject.c
index 43d8381..a286646 100644
--- a/Objects/bytesobject.c
+++ b/Objects/bytesobject.c
@@ -2312,11 +2312,13 @@
 is given and true.");
 
 static PyObject*
-bytes_splitlines(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
+bytes_splitlines(PyObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 {
+    static char *kwlist[] = {"keepends", 0};
     int keepends = 0;
 
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "|i:splitlines", &keepends))
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "|i:splitlines",
+                                     kwlist, &keepends))
         return NULL;
 
     return stringlib_splitlines(
@@ -2458,7 +2460,7 @@
     {"rsplit", (PyCFunction)bytes_rsplit, METH_VARARGS, rsplit__doc__},
     {"rstrip", (PyCFunction)bytes_rstrip, METH_VARARGS, rstrip__doc__},
     {"split", (PyCFunction)bytes_split, METH_VARARGS, split__doc__},
-    {"splitlines", (PyCFunction)bytes_splitlines, METH_VARARGS,
+    {"splitlines", (PyCFunction)bytes_splitlines, METH_VARARGS | METH_KEYWORDS,
      splitlines__doc__},
     {"startswith", (PyCFunction)bytes_startswith, METH_VARARGS,
      startswith__doc__},
diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index 174455f..8c2ce6a 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -8881,11 +8881,13 @@
 is given and true.");
 
 static PyObject*
-unicode_splitlines(PyUnicodeObject *self, PyObject *args)
+unicode_splitlines(PyUnicodeObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 {
+    static char *kwlist[] = {"keepends", 0};
     int keepends = 0;
 
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "|i:splitlines", &keepends))
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "|i:splitlines",
+                                     kwlist, &keepends))
         return NULL;
 
     return PyUnicode_Splitlines((PyObject *)self, keepends);
@@ -9273,7 +9275,7 @@
     {"rjust", (PyCFunction) unicode_rjust, METH_VARARGS, rjust__doc__},
     {"rstrip", (PyCFunction) unicode_rstrip, METH_VARARGS, rstrip__doc__},
     {"rpartition", (PyCFunction) unicode_rpartition, METH_O, rpartition__doc__},
-    {"splitlines", (PyCFunction) unicode_splitlines, METH_VARARGS, splitlines__doc__},
+    {"splitlines", (PyCFunction) unicode_splitlines, METH_VARARGS | METH_KEYWORDS, splitlines__doc__},
     {"strip", (PyCFunction) unicode_strip, METH_VARARGS, strip__doc__},
     {"swapcase", (PyCFunction) unicode_swapcase, METH_NOARGS, swapcase__doc__},
     {"translate", (PyCFunction) unicode_translate, METH_O, translate__doc__},