TOPEKA — The Kansas Senate on Thursday passed two bills expanding a law that restricts access to abortion, even as the state awaits a judge’s decision about the validity of the law.
The two proposals, House bills 2727 and 2729, focus on streamlining litigation processes for women who believe they were misled by abortion providers and clarifying how abortion providers communicate about controversial abortion information.
A lawsuit challenging the Women’s Right to Know Act, which passed in 1997 with the stated intent of informing women about abortion and has been expanded through the years, is still undecided. Seven days of hearings that wrapped in October raised questions about the information Kansas forces health care providers to share with women seeking abortions.
Malpractice claims droppedHB 2727 allows women to shorten proceedings required to file a claim against an abortion provider they believe violated their right to informed consent about an abortion.
Women can file a lawsuit without also filing a medical malpractice complaint, a long, complex process requiring them to share details that proponents say can discourage women from pursuing litigation.
If choosing this route, they would be limited to damages of $5,000 plus recovery of abortion and legal costs, said Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican.
He said women are required to receive specific information about abortions, such as whether a reversal is possible after taking one of two pills required for a chemical abortion, a claim based on junk science that has already been rejected by a judge.
Democratic senators challenged whether information about abortion reversal that Thompson shared was scientifically accurate.
Senate Majority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat, said Kansans delivered a clear message in the August 2022 vote on abortion by rejecting an attempt to change the state’s constitution.
“The majority of Kansans support access to abortion and House Bill 2727 goes against the will of people,” she said. “Bypassing the medical malpractice screening panels would make it easier to file baseless lawsuits against abortion providers without meaningful proof of wrongdoing.”
CommunicationHB 2729 requires the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to create a standardized consent form that includes all information women considering an abortion are required to receive under the Women’s Right to Know Act, Thompson said.
“In addition, current required notices informing women about their right not to be coerced into abortion and the possibility of abortion pill reversal will be updated to indicate that such notices are from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment,” he said.
Sen. Marci Francisco, a Lawrence Democrat, asked about the bill’s fiscal note.
“I think it’s death by fiscal note, as I recall, on this one,” he said. “I’d have to look it up, but it’s one of those fiscal notes that’s grossly overstated.”
The fiscal note projects a cost of between $350,000 and $399,000, including three full-time positions.
Sen. Cindy Holscher, an Overland Park Democrat, criticized the inaccurate information that providers would be forced to give patients.
“This one in particular works to erode the patient-provider relationship by adding more requirements that providers give medically inaccurate and necessary information to patients,” she said. “I just question this body in terms of the fact that, again, our voters said access is important to them. I just ask this body to, at some point, respect the will of the people that have spoken on this issue.”
Sykes said the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said there’s no high-quality, peer-reviewed studies showing that what the bill requires KDHE to post is accurate.
“We are misleading Kansans. We are lying to them with this legislation, and we are growing government,” she said.
The two bills now advance to Gov. Laura Kelly.
This story previously appeared in the Kansas Reflector.
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