More women are expected to come to Kansas clinics because of Oklahoma’s abortion ban

A brand new, near-total ban on abortion in Oklahoma has Kansas clinics bracing for a flood of ladies touring to the state for a process outlawed the place they dwell.

That legislation change might drive a brand new wave of ladies coming from Oklahoma, Texas and different states to one of many few remaining states within the nation’s mid-section that is still dwelling to a handful of abortion clinics.

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed laws this week making abortion a felony. A conviction would include as much as 10 years in jail. Oklahoma nonetheless permits abortions for pregnancies that pose a well being threat, however doesn’t supply exemptions for pregnancies that outcome from rape or incest.

The legislation takes impact in August, however the main abortion clinic in Kansas expects Oklahoma ladies might begin on the lookout for out-of-state procedures a lot sooner.

Zack Gingrich-Gaylord, a spokesman for Belief Girls, stated the legislation will solely additional intensify the variety of Oklahoma ladies searching for providers on the group’s clinic in Wichita. Earlier than the legislation handed, he stated, about 50% of the individuals receiving providers at that clinic have been from out of state. The overwhelming majority of these individuals have been from Oklahoma.

“Dropping way more entry on this area could be very regarding, notably as a result of there’s not that a lot entry to start with,” he stated.

Oklahomans have already turned to Kansas for abortions as a result of ladies touring from Texas have overwhelmed Oklahoma clinics. Texas enacted vital abortion restrictions in 2021. Kansas noticed a rise of ladies searching for service then too, making it an unlikely abortion refuge.

Kansans for Life, a strong anti-abortion group, has referred to as the state on the time a “regional vacation spot for abortion.”

Gingrich-Gaylord stated Texas has many abortion clinics, however some Texas ladies can’t obtain providers at these clinics as a result of their pregnancies are previous the state’s six-week threshold. That has put a major pressure on the clinics in close by states.

“Cities in Texas — Dallas and Houston — have extra clinics than the whole state of Kansas,” Gingrich-Gaylord stated. “Asking the area to tackle that quantity is a extremely tough ask.”

Oklahoma is one in every of a number of states enacting abortion bans in anticipation that the U.S. Supreme Court docket may very well be poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. Different states, corresponding to Arizona and Wyoming, accepted legal guidelines that can go into impact provided that the Supreme Court docket reverses the ruling that’s protected abortion rights since 1973.

If the nation’s excessive courtroom overturns that precedent, the nation can be lined with a state-by-state patchwork of differing abortion legal guidelines. That, in flip, could lead on ladies to journey from their dwelling states for locations the place it stays authorized, together with Kansas.

However Kansas might not be an abortion vacation spot for much longer. The Kansas Legislature in 2021 despatched a state constitutional modification to voters that claims there isn’t a proper to an abortion in Kansas.

Kansas voters shall be requested to approve the modification in August throughout the 2022 main election. If the modification is accepted, the state’s Republcian lawmakers — who at the moment maintain a supermajority within the Legislature — are prone to pursue abortion bans just like the one in Oklahoma.

The modification would particularly wipe out a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court docket resolution that protects abortion rights.

“It’s not a gateway to a ban to abortion,” Danielle Underwood of Kansans For Life stated in 2021. “It’s correcting a really particular authorized resolution that was an overreach.”

However Gingrich-Gaylord stated Kansas will doubtless think about a complete ban shortly like different Republican-dominated states.

“Kansas proper now has one of many stronger protections for abortion care within the nation, and it’s a extremely useful factor,” he stated. “If the modification passes, then all of that’s out the window.”

Dylan Lysen studies on politics for the Kansas Information Service. You may comply with him on Twitter @DylanLysen or e-mail him at dlysen (at) kcur (dot) org.

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