TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) 鈥 Abortion opponents pushed a bill through the Kansas Legislature early Friday to require providers to tell patients that a medication abortion can be 鈥渞eversed鈥 once it's started 鈥 a measure that could face a state court challenge if its supporters can overcome the governor's expected veto.
Republican lawmakers pursued the bill even though experts dispute abortion opponents' claims about medication abortions. Democrats argue the measure defies a decisive statewide vote in August affirming abortion rights. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed a similar measure in 2019.
Kansas has been an outlier on abortion among states with GOP-controlled legislatures because its legal and political climate won't allow a ban on abortion, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's that states can outlaw abortion. The Kansas Supreme Court that access to abortion is a matter of bodily autonomy and a 鈥渇undamental鈥 right under the state constitution, and stripping out that protection.
鈥淭he people of Kansas have spoken,鈥 state Rep. Christina Haswood, a Democrat from the liberal northeastern Kansas community of Lawrence, home to the main University of Kansas campus, said during Friday's brief debate. 鈥淭hey do not want us touching anything on abortion.鈥
Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion groups contend the vote last year doesn't preclude 鈥渞easonable鈥 restrictions. They contend that the 鈥渁bortion pill reversal鈥 measure only ensures that patients have information.
鈥淭hey need to be knowledgeable about what can happen,鈥 Republican state Rep. Susan Humphries, of Wichita, during a debate on the issue last week.
The votes for the final version of the bill were in the House and in the Senate. In both chambers, abortion opponents were short of the two-thirds majorities needed to override a veto but enough absent lawmakers might have voted 鈥測es鈥 for an override to be possible.
But even then, the measure still could be challenged in court by providers who believe it would force them to give patients inaccurate information. Lawsuits have a 2015 ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure and a 2011 law imposing extra health and safety rules for abortion providers.
Meanwhile, legislators this week also approved during certain types of abortion procedures. Doctors could face criminal charges or lawsuits for monetary damages if they are accused of not providing reasonable care to an infant delivered alive during certain types of abortion procedures.
And lawmakers have included $2 million in state tax dollars in the next state budget for centers that provide free prenatal and post-birth counseling and other services as they seek to discourage women from having abortions. Abortion opponents also are pursuing creation of for donors to those centers, allowing up to $10 million total a year.
鈥淭his is not about abortion and it's not about a ban. We heard the vote. We get that,鈥 House health committee Chair Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican, told colleagues during a debate on the issue last week. 鈥淲e also heard you say we don't care and now we're trying to step up to the plate.鈥
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology says there is no scientific evidence that the 鈥渞eversal鈥 method, involving using the hormone progesterone in place of the second abortion medication, is safe or effective.
Two physicians started using the 鈥渞eversal鈥 method more than 15 years ago, and abortion opponents note that progesterone is often used to try to prevent women from miscarrying a pregnancy. One of the doctors who participated in a 2018 study said doctors followed more than 750 women who'd sought to reverse medication abortions and said a sizeable majority were successful.
Critics have said the study was flawed and couldn't show whether the women would have carried their pregnancies to term without progesterone.
鈥淜ansas deserves providers who are free to stick to fact-based health care and not forced to spread scientific myths,鈥 Democratic state Rep. Melissa Oropeza, a Kansas City nurse practioner, said during Friday's debate.
But abortion opponents said it's not improper to promote what is essentially an off-label use for progesterone.
鈥淗eck, we use a lot of things off label,鈥 state Rep. John Eplee, a northeastern Kansas doctor, said during last week's debate. "Viagra 鈥 sildenafil 鈥 was used as a medication for pulmonary hypertension for five years until they found all the male patients woke up with complications, quote-unquote, from it.鈥
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