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Kansas court blocks state law banning telemedicine prescription of abortion pills – LifeSite

TOPEKA, Kansas (LifeSiteNews) — A Kansas judge has blocked the state’s law prohibiting doctors from prescribing dangerous abortion-inducing drugs without an in-person consultation.  

Judge Teresa Watson of the Shawnee County District Court sided with the Trust Women Foundation abortion clinic Wednesday, granting the group’s request for an injunction of the state’s Telemedicine Act, which prohibited doctors from prescribing harmful abortion pills remotely via telemedicine. 

While abortion is legal in Kansas until week 22 of pregnancy, under the now-blocked Telemedicine Act, it was illegal for a doctor to doll out harmful abortion-inducing drugs like mifepristone without first having an in-person appointment with the woman seeking the drugs.  

Watson had previously refused to grant the abortion-providing plaintiff an injunction, but the higher-ranking Kansas Court of Appeals ruled in June that Watson’s initial decision was incompatible with “well-established Kansas case law,” and sent the case back to Watson.  

The judge’s decision to now side with the appeals court and the “Trust Women” abortion center is the second major defeat for Kansas pro-lifers since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June.  

In August, Kansas voters rejected a measure that would have explicitly removed the so-called “right” to an abortion from the state’s constitution.  

Abortion via pills – also called “medical abortion” or “chemical abortion” – was “approved” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000 for the termination of children in the womb up until the 10-week mark of pregnancy.

The latest CDC analysis suggests that since 2017 the chemical abortion drug  mifepristone has accounted for 40% of all abortions annually. 

While the drugs used in the fatal procedure – namely mifepristone – are routinely marketed as safe by pro-abortion activists, even the FDA had previously restricted the distribution of the dangerous drug via mail and telemedicine until late last year, due to the compound’s serious risk profile.  

In 2018, the FDA reported to have received thousands of reports of complications from women who had taken mifepristone, including 24 recorded deaths. 

However, an analysis of the FDA’s adverse event reporting system found that the system suffers from dramatic under-counting, meaning the dangers of mifepristone are likely much more significant and pervasive than what is currently known.  

A peer-reviewed study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute likewise reported that mifepristone is extremely harmful, finding that “The rate of abortion-related emergency room visits following a chemical abortion increased over 500% from 2002 through 2015, according to an analysis of Medicaid claims data.”  

The study also found that “the rate of abortion-related ER visits is growing faster for chemical abortions than [for] surgical abortions.” 

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