(TOPEKA) The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday struck down state laws that more strictly regulate doctors who perform abortions than other medical professionals, and it also struck down a ban on a common second-trimester procedure, reaffirming the position that the state constitution protects access to abortion.
“We stand by our conclusion that the First Amendment of the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights protects the fundamental right to personal autonomy, which includes the right of a pregnant woman to terminate her pregnancy,” Supreme Court Justice Eric Rosen wrote for the court. The majority overturned a ban on a particular type of dilation and evacuation, also known as a D&E, which involves dilating the cervix and removing the fetus and placental tissue from the uterus.
In striking down the abortion clinic regulation law, the Kansas Supreme Court found that the state had failed to meet “its burden of proof to show that the challenged statutes advanced the interests of maternal privacy and the regulation of the medical profession with respect to maternal health.”
Kansas Supreme Court rulings in two separate cases suggest the Republican-controlled court faces tougher restrictions on abortion regulation than GOP lawmakers thought, and suggest more restrictions could be struck down.
Lawsuits in lower courts already challenge restrictions on medication abortion, a ban on doctors using video to interview patients, rules about what doctors must tell women before an abortion, and a requirement that patients wait 24 hours after receiving information about the procedure before terminating their pregnancies.
One judge dissenting
Judge KJ Wall did not participate in either decision Friday, while Judge Caleb Stegall was the sole dissenter.
In his dissenting opinion in the clinic settlement case, Mr. Stegall said the majority's actions would damage the court's legitimacy “for years to come.”
He noted that declaring that the state constitution protects the right to bodily autonomy could affect a “broad range” of health and safety regulations beyond abortion.
Mr. Stegall, appointed by conservative Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, is widely considered the most conservative member of the Kansas Supreme Court.
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in a 2019 decision that access to abortion is a matter of bodily autonomy and a fundamental right under the state constitution. In 2022, it also decisively rejected a proposed amendment that would have explicitly declared abortion not a fundamental right and allowed state lawmakers to significantly restrict or ban it.
State attorneys urged the justices to overturn the 2019 ruling and uphold the two laws, which have yet to be implemented due to legal battles over them. The state attorney general, appointed by Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach, said the 2022 vote doesn’t matter in determining whether the laws can stand.
The court disagreed, handing a major legal victory to abortion rights supporters.
Kansas has become an outlier among states with Republican-controlled legislatures since the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 allowed states to ban abortion entirely.
