OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — State courts have become hot spots in the national abortion debate, with Utah’s top court and a Kansas judge considering Tuesday whether their state constitutions require them to block or invalidate laws regulating the procedure more than a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson transformed what was long a debate over the U.S. Constitution, immediately limiting the pathways abortion advocates could take in challenging restrictions from one state to the next.
“State courts are incredibly important in this moment when patients are having difficulty accessing abortion because many states have banned it entirely so patients are traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles,” Alice Wang, a Center for Reproductive Rights attorney, told reporters after arguing providers’ case in a courtroom in the Kansas City area.
In Kansas, the legal battle is over how providers dispense abortion medications, what they must tell patients and a required 24-hour wait for an abortion after information required by the state is provided to the patient.
Questions about those restrictions hinge on the state constitution — and on the Kansas Supreme Court’s 2019 decision declaring bodily autonomy a “fundamental” right that protects abortion access. Kansas doesn’t ban most abortions until the 22nd week of pregnancy.
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