Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has agreed the state temporarily will not enforce a new law requiring abortion providers to tell patients that the effects of mifepristone, the first of two pills taken in a medication abortion, are reversible.
The Republican state attorney general and abortion providers filed a joint agreement in Johnson County District Court on Friday stipulating that Kansas officials will hold off on enforcement until Judge K. Christopher Jayaram rules on whether to issue a temporary order blocking the law. The agreement was made public on Tuesday.
The “abortion reversal” law was set to go into effect on July 1, but Jayaram may not issue a decision for weeks. A hearing scheduled for Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the measure has been canceled and is expected to be rescheduled for August.
“This development offers our providers temporary relief from a new law that would force them to lie to patients with dangerous and misleading information about ‘abortion pill reversal.’ But the long-term work continues to ensure providers always have open and honest conversations with patients and that patients have the information to give accurate and informed consent,” Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said in a statement.
The procedure to “reverse” a medication abortion is based upon limited studies that have been criticized as insufficient to prove the procedure works and is safe. The procedure involves providing a woman who has taken the first pill in a medication abortion with progesterone, which is often used to prevent miscarriage.
The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature passed the abortion reversal law, HB 2264, in April, overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto. The legislation was among the first abortion measures enacted by lawmakers since voters last August rejected a state constitutional amendment that would have allowed the Legislature to ban abortion.
“Kansans spoke loud and clear about protecting their constitutional right to abortion in the state constitution, and these restrictions directly violate their freedoms and threaten their health and safety,” Wales said.
In a statement, Kobach said requirements in Kansas law prior to 2023 remain in full effect.
“The new portions are only temporarily delayed during the first phase of litigation. The parties have agreed that this is the most efficient way to proceed,” Kobach said.
Separately, Kobach’s office on Tuesday promoted a multi-state donation drive to raise funds for pregnancy resource centers, which typically oppose abortion, in commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, is also participating in the donation drive.
The effort to overturn HB 2264 is part of a broader legal challenge of strict Kansas requirements mandating providers share medically inaccurate or unproven information with patients considering an abortion and that patients undergo a waiting period before their procedure.
Abortion providers are asking the court to block the enforcement of requirements in Kansas law that physicians meet with patients and provide detailed information to patients about their pregnancy 24 hours before the procedure; requirements that physicians listen to the fetus’ heartbeat 30 minutes prior to an abortion; and requirements that providers, without evidence, post information in their clinics and websites that abortions could increase their risk of breast cancer and premature birth in future pregnancies.
Danielle Underwood, a spokeswoman for Kansans for Life, has previously called the lawsuit “an unprecedented attack on a woman’s right to informed consent before an abortion is performed on her.” Abortion providers say the laws are designed to stigmatize and shame those who seek abortions.
The temporary agreement between Kobach and abortion providers comes ahead of the publication of Kansas’ abortion statistics for 2022, which are expected to show that the number of abortions in Kansas rose in the wake of the Dobbs decision as Missouri and other nearby states banned or severely restricted the procedure.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment will publish the statistics by the end of June.
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(The Star’s Katie Bernard contributed reporting.)
