Kobach, Bailey urge judge to block medication used in majority of Kansas abortions
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey are urging a federal judge to effectively ban medication abortion nationwide, a decision that would have a profound impact in Kansas, where pills are used to induce most abortions.
The Republican state attorneys general filed or signed on to legal briefs Friday in support of a lawsuit filed in Texas by abortion opponents that seeks to overturn Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone, the primary drug used in medication abortions.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump, could decide whether to issue a nationwide injunction against the drug later this month. Any injunction would almost certainly be immediately appealed.
Missouri banned abortion last June when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In Kansas, however, voters in August reaffirmed abortion rights, rejecting an amendment to the state constitution that would have allowed state lawmakers to ban the procedure.
But a nationwide block on mifepristone would sharply curtail abortion in Kansas, where the drug was used in about 68% of abortions in 2021, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Statistics for 2022 aren’t yet available.
The FDA approved mifepristone as – in combination with a second drug — as a safe and effective method for ending a pregnancy in 2000. Kobach, Bailey and other Republican state attorneys general contend the FDA’s approval had legal problems and that the agency over time has set aside safety standards.
“For two decades, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has acted to establish a nationwide regime of on-demand abortion by licensing sweeping access to chemical abortion drugs—in defiance of federal and state laws protecting life, health, and safety,” Kobach and other state attorneys general wrote in a brief led by Mississippi.
Kobach’s decision to officially throw his support behind the lawsuit is an early indicator that Kansas’ new attorney general will support efforts to limit abortion despite the August amendment vote. It also suggests Kobach will look to federal law as a way to weaken abortion access, given that Kansas’ state constitution upholds the right to end a pregnancy.
Kobach promised during his campaign that he would push for “additional laws to make Kansas the most pro-life state in America.”
While Missouri eliminated most surgical abortions in recent years before Roe was overturned, many Missourians continue to obtain abortions in neighboring states.
In 2021 in Kansas, 3,458 abortions were induced on Missouri residents, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. In Illinois, 6,578 Missouri residents received an abortion in 2020, the latest year of data available from the Illinois Department of Public Health. A little more than half of abortions in Illinois were induced with drugs, according to the department.
Planned Parenthood late last year began offering telemedicine abortions in Kansas, which rely on mifepristone, after a Kansas judge blocked state authorities from enforcing a ban on the procedure.
“By offering medication abortion via telehealth in Kansas, we can now see patients we might not otherwise have been able to treat because of a lack of provider coverage in this region,” Iman Alsaden, chief medical officer of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said in a statement at the time. “It’s an important step in expanding access in a state like Kansas that has proven it values every person’s ability to make their own health care decisions.”
In a separate brief, Bailey contends that it is likely the complication rate from abortion drugs is “much higher than the rate printed in established medical literature.” He points to legal fights between Planned Parenthood and Missouri between 2016 and 2019 that included testimony that a St. Louis clinic didn’t file required state reports.
“The plain text of the law matters, which is why Missouri is helping lead the effort to block the FDA’s blatant attempt to nullify the law and harm women,” Bailey said in a statement. “This brief raises awareness of the serious harm these abortion drugs impose on women. My office will do everything in its power to uphold the law and protect Missourians.”
Spokespeople for Kobach didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains spokesperson Anamarie Rebori Simmons didn’t comment Monday on the potential consequences of an injunction, but wrote in an email that the organization was waiting to understand the decision. The judge in the case could decide in a matter of weeks whether to issue an injunction.
The FDA has strenuously argued against an injunction on mifepristone. In a court filing last month, attorneys for the agency said the lawsuit sought action based on “speculative allegations of harm” that are without merit.
An injunction “would cause significant harm, depriving patients of a safe and effective drug that has been on the market for more than two decades,” the FDA said in the filing.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
