Kansas Supreme Court invalidates GOP-backed abortion law

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday struck down a Republican-backed ban on second-trimester abortions and affirmed that the state constitution protects access to abortion, with one justice dissenting.

In two separate decisions issued Friday, the court ruled that “the Kansas Constitution of Rights protects a fundamental right to personal autonomy, which includes the right of a pregnant person to terminate her pregnancy.” The court also ruled against several state licensing requirements for abortion providers.

The decisions blocked enforcement of a 2015 law backed by GOP lawmakers that banned a common second-trimester abortion procedure called dilation and evacuation. The court found that SB 95, known as the Unborn Protection from Dismemberment Act, violates the Kansas Constitutional Bill of Rights and “infringes on the right to abortion.”

Newsweek reached out to the Kansas Republican Party via email Friday afternoon seeking comment. Newsweek contacted party chairman Mike Brown via text message on Friday afternoon.

Kansas, a reliably conservative state for decades, has been at the center of national debates over abortion for several years. In August 2022, just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade In Dobbs decision that eliminated a federal right to abortion, Kansas residents overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that sought to remove abortion protections from the state constitution, the first vote of its kind in the country since Dobbs. The majority referred to the 2022 ballot measure in its opinion, stating that “The people have spoken with their voices.”

Abortion advocates applauded the decisions, including the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), which filed one of the cases on behalf of an abortion provider. Nancy Northup, president and CEO of CRR, called the ruling “a huge victory for the health, safety and dignity of people in Kansas and across the Midwest, where millions have been cut off from access to abortion.”

The statement noted that “the number of abortions performed in Kansas increased by 57% in 2022, with more than two-thirds of patients traveling from out of state,” according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. That reflects a broader trend of patients from states with more restrictive abortion laws seeking medical services in Kansas.

Since the overthrow Roe v. Wade, Kansas has seen a significant increase in the number of abortions, largely due to out-of-state patients, likely from neighboring states with more restrictive abortion policies such as Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas.

The Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization supporting abortion rights, released a report last month that found the number of abortion clinics in Kansas is expected to increase by 50 percent between 2020 and 2023.

Newsweek on Friday reached out to Americans United for Life for comment via email.