KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Telemedicine abortions have begun in Kansas, potentially making it easier for residents of Missouri and other nearby states with abortion bans to end their pregnancies, despite repeated efforts by Kansas legislators to prohibit the procedure.
Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains announced Tuesday that it has begun offering medication abortions via telehealth at all of its health centers in Kansas. The organization operates centers in Overland Park, Kansas City, Kansas, and Wichita.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, Kansas has increasingly become a stronghold of abortion access in the center of the country as Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and other states to the south and east have imposed total or near-total bans. Kansas voters’ rejection in August of an amendment to strip abortion rights from the state constitution has also provided a more stable legal climate for providers.
As a result, demand for abortions is so high that Planned Parenthood in Kansas can see only a fraction of patients requesting appointments, officials previously told The Star.
“Despite this devastating time for reproductive rights, Kansas remains a place that respects patients and their personal health care decisions. Offering medication abortion through telehealth allows CHPPGP to meet the needs of more patients, in an even more timely manner, by greatly increasing the number of physicians available to deliver care,” Emily Wales, president and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said in a statement.
“This is a win not only for Kansans but for patients in surrounding states traveling for care, who have suffered as politicians prioritized scoring points over the rights of patients,” Wales said. “We are proud to meet the moment by offering health care to all, regardless of where they live.”
Planned Parenthood on Tuesday said patients seeking a medication abortion via telehealth must still be seen in-person at a health center in Kansas, but the telehealth physician may be located in any state where abortion is legal. According to Planned Parenthood, this allows health centers to offer more appointments.
Medication abortions involve taking two drugs in pill form. Mifepristone, which stops development of the pregnancy, is taken first, under the supervision of the telehealth physician. Misoprostol, which empties the uterus, is taken after the clinic visit and within 48 hours of taking Mifepristone, according to Planned Parenthood.
The gap between the first medication and the second means that some individuals traveling from another state, especially women crossing the state line in the Kansas City metro, will likely take the second medication at home in a state where abortion is banned.
Missouri law, which bans abortion except in cases of medical emergency, says any person “who knowingly performs or induces an abortion of an unborn child” is guilty of a Class B felony. But: “A woman upon whom an abortion is performed or induced in violation of this subsection shall not be prosecuted for a conspiracy to violate the provisions of this subsection.”
Over more than a decade, Kansas lawmakers have made multiple attempts to ban telemedicine abortion. The bans approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature inevitably ended up challenged in court, leaving the legality of the legislation in doubt.
But a crucial court decision in November paved the way for abortion providers to begin offering medication abortions via telehealth. Shawnee County District Court Judge Teresa Watson blocked the state from enforcing a ban on the procedure, following a Kansas Court of Appeals opinion in May that overturned a previous decision by the judge not to issue an injunction against the ban.
Planned Parenthood’s decision to start offering telemedicine abortions in Kansas is likely to fuel warnings by abortion opponents that other restrictions are in danger following the defeat of the state constitutional amendment. They have said that a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court opinion that protected abortion access set a high standard of legal review for abortion-related laws that would eventually lead to courts blocking current limits on the procedure.
Spokespeople for Kansans for Life, the state’s leading anti-abortion group, didn’t immediately comment. In a message to supporters earlier this month, the group said the blocking of the Kansas ban on telemedicine abortions “confirms that without the amendment every existing abortion limit is in danger.”
Iman Alsaden, chief medical officer of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said the organization has treated countless patients, including some who travel overnight, who are confused about why they must “overcome obstacles to care that should be available in their communities.”
“By offering medication abortion via telehealth in Kansas, we can now see patients we might not otherwise have been able to treat because of a lack of provider coverage in this region,” Alsaden said in a statement.
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