Kansas is not a destination for late term abortions without health and safety standards
When a leaked U.S. Supreme Court opinion indicated the high court planned to overturn Roe v. Wade, groups pushing to remove state-level protections from Kansas’ constitution said it didn’t matter.
In 2019 the Kansas Supreme Court ruled the state constitution contained a right to an abortion. On Aug. 2, voters will decide on a constitutional amendment aimed at overturning that ruling and allowing state lawmakers to impose restrictions on abortion.
In a statement less than 24 hours after the leak, the Value Them Both Coalition— a coordinated campaign of Kansas’ major anti-abortion groups— wouldn’t talk about the implications of the looming decision. Instead, they painted a grim picture of abortion in Kansas.
“No matter what the U.S. Supreme Court decides on abortion, as of now Kansas will remain a destination for painful late-term abortions and clinics with no health and safety standards – among the most extreme states in the nation. If Kansans want to stop this, they must vote YES on Value Them Both,” their statement said.
The statement wasn’t true.
Kansas Department of Health and Environment data shows few late-term abortions have occurred in Kansas in the last three years. And abortion clinics are regulated by the same state and federal agencies that ensure health and safety standards across the medical field.
Claim: “Destination for painful late-term abortions”
Abortion is already severely limited in Kansas’ neighboring states. Oklahoma this year approved a ban on abortion after six weeks, while Missouri’s only abortion clinic is in the St. Louis area.
As a result, more than half of the abortions performed in Kansas are for women who live in another state.
However, Kansas is not a destination for late-term abortions.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, late-term abortion is not an accepted medical term and its use is often criticized in the medical community because it falsely implies abortions are taking place after a pregnancy has reached term at 37 weeks. The term is most often used by abortion opponents and has most commonly been used to describe abortions occurring at or after 21 weeks gestation— the latest time period identified in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data on abortions in the United States.
Abortions during or after the 22nd week of pregnancy are illegal in Kansas. Abortions up to the 21st week are legal but account for a small percentage of abortions performed in the state.
According to Kansas Department of Health and Environment data, 297 abortions occurred between the 17th and 21st week of pregnancy in 2021 in Kansas, just 3.8% of the total abortions performed in the state. The data does not show how many of those abortions would be considered “late-term” 21st week abortions.
In a statement, the Value Them Both Coalition defined late-term abortion as 15 weeks when, they said, a fetus can feel pain. Studies have had conflicting conclusions on whether and at what point a human fetus feels pain. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said that a fetus lacks the “physiological capacity to perceive pain” until 24 weeks.
The anti-abortion coalition specifically pointed to “dismemberment abortions,” known in the medical community as dilation and evacuation abortions.
“Increasing numbers of women are traveling here from other states for these live dismemberment abortions, which have increased 17% in the past three years. Dismemberment abortions occur in the late 2nd and 3rd trimesters. Undeniably painful, late-term abortions are happening now in Kansas,” Mackenzie Haddix, Deputy Communications Director for the coalition, said in the statement.
Dilation and evacuation abortions and abortions at or after 15 weeks of pregnancy account for a small fraction of abortions in Kansas. In 2021, 5.9% of the total abortions in Kansas occurred between 13 and 16 weeks gestation, while 6.1% of the total abortions in the state were performed with the dilation and evacuation method.
Dilation and evacuation abortions are used starting at the 13th week of pregnancy, the beginning of the second trimester. The procedure has not been used in the 3rd trimester in Kansas in the last three years as the third trimester begins at 27 weeks.
Claim: “Clinics with no health and safety standards.”
Abortion clinics in Kansas face regulation from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts.
Practicing clinicians must abide by licensure requirements and investigations by the Board of Healing Arts, just like all other medical professionals in the state.
Under Kansas statute clinicians regulated by the board must meet safety, sanitation and cleanliness guidelines and adhere to strict guidelines regarding the handling and disposal of medical and hazardous materials.
Furthermore, the Board of Healing Arts, requires clinicians to adhere to best practices in surgery and recovery. Negative outcomes, including hospitalization as a result of the surgery, must be reported to the board of healing arts.
KDHE licenses, regulates, and inspects hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. The Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park and Trust Women in Wichita are both ambulatory surgical centers and therefore regulated by the agency.
Furthermore, the clinics must abide by federal OSHA and Clinical Laboratory Safety guidelines for medical facilities.
In a statement, however, the Value Them Both coalition called the Board of Healing Arts reactive and noted that abortion doctors traveling into the state do not need a license from the board.
They pointed to a December ruling in Shawnee County District Court when a judge struck down a 2011 law with standards specific to abortion clinics that had never been enforced.
“This law was passed after the horrific conditions of a Kansas City, Kansas abortion clinic came to light. There are no abortion clinic-specific licensing standards in effect,” Haddix said.
Using the 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling, the judge determined the law restricted a woman’s access to abortion.
The law, the judge ruled, did not have a compelling state interest because abortion was already well regulated under existing rules for medical facilities in Kansas.
The law required medication abortions to be physically administered by a physician in the same room as a patient, and required physicians to perform tasks usually performed by a medical assistant. The law also established inspection requirements beyond what is expected of other facilities and established a minimum recovery time for patients.
Following a court injunction, the 2011 law was never enforced, so the December ruling made no changes to abortion care in Kansas.
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 11:06 AM with the headline "Kansas is not a destination for late term abortions without health and safety standards."
