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In a motion filed late on Monday in Johnson County Civil Court,
the providers said the law, passed by the state's Republican
legislature in April over the veto of its Democratic governor
and set to take effect in July, would violate their right to
free speech under the U.S. Constitution and their patients'
right to personal autonomy.
They are asking the court to let them add the claim to their
earlier lawsuit over a law requiring doctors to tell patients
that medication abortion can be reversed, a claim not supported
by evidence. They won a preliminary order blocking that law in
October.
"The decision to have an abortion is deeply personal - no one
should be forced to tell the government why they are making that
decision," Alice Wang, an attorney at the Center for
Reproductive Rights, which represents the doctors, said in a
statement. "It's frankly frightening that the state of Kansas is
attempting to collect this type of private information, and
unclear how it will be used."
The office of Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
Abortion is legal in Kansas up to 22 weeks, and in 2019, the
state's highest court ruled that the Kansas constitution
protects the right to abortion. Kansas voters in August 2022
rejected a measure to remove abortion protections from the state
constitution.
That 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 Alistair Bell)
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