Judge blocks Kansas law requiring doctors to say medication abortion can
be reversed
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[October 31, 2023]
By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) - A judge in Kansas on Monday blocked a state law requiring
healthcare providers to tell patients that medication abortion can be
reversed and that abortion is linked to breast cancer while he considers
a legal challenge to the law by abortion providers and Planned
Parenthood.
Judge K. Christopher Jayaram of the District Court of Johnson County
said that the law, which was passed in April, violated doctors' right to
free speech and patients' right to abortion, which the state's highest
court recognized in 2019.
"The State’s capacity to legislate pursuant to its own moral scruples is
necessarily curbed by the Kansas Constitution and its Bill of Rights,"
the judge wrote. It "may pick a side and viewpoint, but in doing so, it
may not trespass upon the natural inalienable rights of the people."
Jayaram's order is a preliminary injunction, not a final order, and will
remain in place while he considers the lawsuit.
Alice Wang of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents the
plaintiffs, said in a statement that the ruling removed "paternalistic
barriers that have restricted access to abortion for far too long."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/31/images/ads/current/topflight_sda_FFARM_2023.png)
Caleb Dalton of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing
the state, said in a statement, "Kansans are right to want to protect
maternal health and safety and the lives of the unborn, and we will
continue defending their interests."
ADF is a conservative legal group that has spearheaded other
anti-abortion litigation, including a case in which it won an order from
a Texas judge last year banning the abortion drug mifepristone. That
order is on hold while the Biden administration appeals to the U.S.
Supreme Court.
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![](../images/103123PIX/health20.jpg)
A container holding boxes of Mifepristone, the first medication in a
medical abortion, are prepared for patients at Alamo Women's Clinic
in Carbondale, Illinois, U.S., April 20, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn
Hockstein/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/31/images/ads/current/graue_lda_FFARM_2023.png) A regional Planned Parenthood
affiliate and several individual providers sued Kansas in June,
saying the law requires doctors to spread misinformation and to
promote "experimental and potentially dangerous treatments."
Medication abortion involves taking mifepristone followed by
misoprostol. The Kansas law requires doctors to state that the
effect of mifepristone, before misoprostol, can be reversed with a
high dose of the hormone progesterone.
The American Cancer Society states on its website that, while the
topic is difficult to study, scientific evidence "does not support
the notion that abortion of any kind raises the risk of breast
cancer."
The only controlled trial of the so-called reversal was halted early
after three of 12 patients experienced severe bleeding requiring
them to go to the hospital.
Abortion is legal in Kansas up to 22 weeks. Kansas voters in August
2022 rejected a measure to remove abortion rights from the state
constitution.
The vote came after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its landmark
Roe v. Wade precedent, which had established a right to abortion
nationwide, allowing many Republican-led states to ban or restrict
abortion.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia
Garamfalvi and Aurora Ellis)
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