Kansas Abortion Providers Sue to Hide Risks from Women

For nearly every major medical procedure in the United States, doctors and other health-care providers must receive informed consent from their patients before treating them. From a simple vaccine to a major surgery, patients have the right to hear about the risks involved before they decide whether to undergo the procedure.

When Kansas passed its Woman’s Right to Know Act in 1997, it did so to ensure that expectant mothers are informed about the risks of abortion. But abortion businesses are now trying to keep women in Kansas from being informed about abortion. These businesses are putting their own profits ahead of women’s safety.

ADF attorneys are serving as co-counsel alongside Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach to defend the Kansas Woman’s Right to Know Act against challenges from two abortion businesses and one individual abortion provider. Since Attorney General Kobach represents the voters in the state, he has a duty to defend the laws that these voters have enacted through their elected officials.

Kansas law protects women

The Kansas Woman’s Right to Know Act protects women in three key ways:

• The law requires abortion businesses and providers to inform a woman seeking an abortion about the risks of the procedure, the prenatal and postnatal care that is available, the right to have an ultrasound and see her child, the right to withdraw consent before the abortion, and other important information about her pregnancy.
• The law requires abortion facilities that dispense abortion drugs to inform women about the unique risks of chemical abortion and provide information about abortion pill reversal if a woman decides to continue her pregnancy. Abortion providers are also required to disclose whether they have faced disciplinary action, whether they have malpractice insurance, and whether they enjoy privileges at any hospital within 30 miles.
• Finally, the law includes a 24-hour waiting period for a woman who is seeking an abortion. This provision ensures that profit-minded abortion businesses cannot pressure a woman into an abortion without giving her time to consider the risks, consequences, and alternatives.

All these provisions are commonsense protections for women. Before deciding to proceed with a serious and dangerous procedure such as abortion, women have a right to know the basic facts about it. But two abortion businesses—including Planned Parenthood—and an abortion provider don’t want to comply with the law, which threatens their profits.

Planned Parenthood prioritizes profit over women’s health

In June 2023, the abortion businesses and providers filed a lawsuit challenging Kansas’s commonsense law and seeking an emergency injunction to block the law even though they admit they’ve complied with it for years. ADF attorneys are defending the law alongside Attorney General Kobach.

While a state district court allowed Planned Parenthood to temporarily block enforcement of Kansas’s law, the attorney general has appealed to the state’s Court of Appeals.

Every woman deserves to have all the information she needs to make a life-affirming choice for both her unborn child and herself. Kansas’s law helps ensure that women cannot be tricked or pressured into an abortion but rather are informed about the risks and all their options, just as they should be about any other major procedure.

By trying to skirt these commonsense protections, abortion providers have proven they prioritize their own interests over the physical or mental health of their customers. The court must uphold Kansas’s law to ensure that abortion providers cannot put profits over people.

Hodes & Nauser v. Kobach

• June 2023: Two abortion businesses—including Planned Parenthood—and two abortion providers filed a lawsuit challenging the Kansas Woman’s Right to Know Act.
• July 2023: Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and ADF attorneys filed their response explaining the important purpose of the law and asking the court to uphold it.
• October 2023: A district court issued an order allowing Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers to temporarily block enforcement of the Woman’s Right to Know Act.
• August 2024: ADF attorneys, serving as co-counsel with Attorney General Kobach, participated in oral argument at the Kansas Court of Appeals.