Both cases were related to Kansas state laws passed before the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
One law passed in 2015 essentially banned the most common form of second-trimester abortion, dilation and evacuation, except for when necessary to save the life of the mother. The state’s supreme court had previously ruled on the case in 2019 before sending it back down to a district court.
The lower court had found that the Kansas state government had presented “no reasonable alternative” to dilation and evacuation and failed to prove the law was constitutionally sound.
“The State devoted much of its brief to inviting us to reverse our earlier ruling in this case that the Kansas Constitution protects a right to abortion. We decline the invitation,” Justice Eric S. Rosen wrote in the opinion.
The other law ruled on by the court Friday imposed licensing requirements on facilities that provide abortion care which critics argued were overly onerous and restrictive.
Among the requirements was that a physician had to be in the room when a drug to induce an abortion was administered to a patient.
In both cases, the Kansas Supreme Court affirmed decisions issued by lower courts finding that the laws violated the state constitution. The higher court had previously found that access to abortion care was protected by the Kansas state constitution and any government action limiting this care must “withstand strict scrutiny.”
Kansas was the first state to vote on an abortion ballot measure post-Roe, with voters in 2022 rejecting a measure that would have given the state legislature the authority to ban abortion. This was the first in several state ballot measures where voters voted in favor of abortion access.
