Kansas judge allows telemedicine for abortion pills

A Kansas judge on Wednesday blocked a state law that banned doctors from prescribing abortion pills via telemedicine.

Shawnee County District Court Judge Teresa Watson granted a Wichita reproductive clinic’s request for a temporary injunction, after the Kansas Court of Appeals overturned her previous ruling.

Watson initially denied the clinic’s request for an injunction. However, the appeals court in June found that Watson “diverged from well-established Kansas caselaw” in her decision and sent the issue back to the lower court, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

“This decision will further open up abortion care in Kansas at a time it’s urgently needed,” Nancy Northup, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. The center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the clinic, Trust Women, in 2019.

“In this post-Roe world, telemedicine can make the difference in being able to receive abortion care or not,” Northup added. “Today’s decision paves the way for Kansas abortion clinics to expand services to women in remote, underserved areas of Kansas.”

The ruling comes just months after Kansas voters rejected a state constitutional amendment that would have given the legislature more power to regulate abortion. It was the first time since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June that Americans had weighed in on the issue.

Abortion rights advocates also saw major successes in this month’s midterm elections. Voters in Kentucky and Montana rejected antiabortion measures, while those in California, Michigan and Vermont supported measures to enshrine reproductive rights in their state constitutions. 

However, a legal battle over Georgia’s six-week abortion ban swung in favor of abortion ban advocates on Wednesday, when the state’s Supreme Court put a lower court ruling on hold and reinstated the abortion ban.