A Kansas judge recently struck down a new state law affecting abortion-seeking patients and suspended existing laws. In Kansas, lawmakers recently voted a new law into effect. The law detailed specific information that abortion providers had to tell patients.
Also, an existing law in Kansas required a 24-hour wait period for women seeking abortions since the 1990s. However, a Kansas district judge ruled the law unconstitutional and said the state could not uphold it.
District Judge K. Christopher Jayaram said he understood it was a “contentious issue” with “deeply held beliefs on either side.” However, legislators must uphold the state Constitution. “The Court has great respect for the deeply held beliefs on either side of this contentious issue,” Jayaram wrote in his 92-page order.
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The District Judge also added that the state cannot legislate based on “moral scruples.” In addition, Judge Jayaram said the Kansas Constitution and Bill of Rights must curb the state’s excesses. The ruling marks another big victory for abortion rights advocates in Kansas.
District Judge Jayaram’s order suspends some restrictions that have been in effect for years. Jayaram’s order will remain in effect through the trial set for the end of June 2024. Afterward, a lawsuit filed by abortion providers against state officials who enforced abortion restrictions would go to court.
The providers filed their case in Johnson County in the Kansas City area, home to two clinics that provide abortions. Following Judge Jayaram’s ruling, Emily Wales, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, spoke on the restrictions.
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She said each day these restrictions were in effect, they had to turn away patients for “medically wrong and ethically unjustifiable” reasons. While Kansas’s legislature is Republican-led, the state has been protective of abortion rights.
In 2019, Kansas’s Supreme Court concreted the state’s abortion protections in a bombshell ruling that rocked state politics. The Kansas Supreme Court determined that abortion is the “natural right of personal autonomy” ensured by the state’s Constitution. However, that ruling came in response to a bill that would have banned most second-trimester abortions.
While other states grapple with strict abortion laws, Kansas has been an outlier on abortion laws among Republican-controlled legislatures. The state Supreme Court declared that access to abortion is a “fundamental” right in 2019.
Consequently, GOP lawmakers proposed an amendment to the state constitution to declare that it doesn’t grant a right to abortion. However, in the August 2022 vote, that ballot initiative lost by a wide margin, upholding abortion rights.
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Nonetheless, the conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom anti-abortion activists plan to continue the fight against abortion in the state. While defending their stance, Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Caleb Dalton referred to the previously existing 24-hour waiting period.
“These kinds of informed consent laws reflect the long-standing will of the people of Kansas,” Dalton said. “Kansans are right to want to protect maternal health and the safety and the lives of the unborn, and we will continue defending their interests.”
After the Supreme Court toppled Roe v. Wade, surrounding states have outrightly banned abortion. Consequently, Kansas has seen an influx of abortion-seeking visitors from out of state. According to reports, the abortion rate in Kansas increased by 57% in 2022.
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