Kansas Forcing Doctors To Report Patients' Reasons For (Still Legal!) Abortions. Doctors Suing Kansas Right Back.
Kansas needs the reports to show all the people getting 9-month elective abortions for swimsuit season.
For many decades, the right to an abortion in this country was intrinsically linked to a right to privacy — to a patient’s right to make personal medical decisions with their doctors and without the involvement of anyone else they didn’t want involved. In Dobbs, the Supreme Court determined that there was no such right to privacy guaranteed in the Constitution.
Thus, it’s not terrifically surprising that so many of the anti-abortion measures flopping around the states have zeroed in on undermining the privacy of those seeking abortion. The Texas laws, for instance, offer a financial reward to those who spy on their friends and neighbors and turn in anyone who helps them get an abortion.
Now, anti-abortion zealots in Kansas — where abortion is still legal, thanks to a Democratic governor and oh, just the entire electorate that voted overwhelmingly to keep it that way! — helped to create and pass a truly disturbing law that would require physicians to ask their patients why they are getting abortions and then report that information back to the government biannually, without names but with information about the patient’s race, marital status, age, location, what kind of abortion care they received, whether they have been assisted by a non-profit recently, whether or not they have been the victim of domestic violence in the past year, their highest degree of educational attainment, their shoe size, zodiac sign, etc.
Why? Well, probably so they can use that information to accuse physicians of covering up crimes, or to show that those who get abortions are especially evil — or just to make patients feel like they have no privacy.
Doctors in the state, however, are pushing back, what with that being an incredibly fucked up thing to do and all.
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the physicians in a lawsuit against the state targeting a variety of disturbing anti-abortion legislation, “HB 2749 requires health care providers to interrogate patients seeking abortion care with invasive and unnecessary questions, including probing the ‘reasons’ they are seeking an abortion,” which “directly interferes with Kansans’ bodily autonomy and their fundamental right to make their own decisions about health care.”
"There is no valid medical reason to force a woman to disclose to the legislature if they have been a victim of abuse, rape, or incest prior to obtaining an abortion. There is no valid medical reason to force a woman to disclose to the legislature why she is seeking an abortion," Democratic Kansas Governor Laura Kelly wrote in a letter to legislators, adding that "I refuse to sign legislation that goes against the will of the majority of Kansans who spoke loudly on Aug. 2, 2022: Kansans don't want politicians involved in their private medical decisions."
Unfortunately, the state Senate and House had enough votes to override her veto.
In addition to other very personal information, the law also requires those who perform abortions in medical emergencies to “specify the medical diagnosis and condition constituting substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function or the medical diagnosis and condition that necessitated performance of an abortion to preserve the life of the patient.” Each of these reports must also “include a sworn statement by the physician performing the abortion and the referring physician that such physicians are not legally or financially affiliated.”
Yeah, you can tell what it is they’re getting at here.
The physicians’ lawsuit also targets statutes like the ones that require doctors to lie to patients and tell them that abortion will increase their risk of breast cancer and that medication abortions are reversible, as well as insulting and unnecessary requirements that a patient wait 24 hours in between receiving this misinformation and actually having an abortion.
The purpose of these laws isn’t to protect these patients or Kansans in general, in any way. There is no way in which any of them are remotely necessary. Their purpose is to intimidate patients and doctors and to inure them to the idea of the government being up in their personal, medical business — which, as Governor Kelly said, is exactly what Kansans said they do not want.
PREVIOUSLY:
The correct answer is, of course, as usual, squirrels.
Why is the water pressure so low? Squirrels.
Why Toronto Maple Leafs instead of Toronto Maple Leaves? Squirrels.
What is the answer to the ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything? 42 squirrels.
Why is there no gas in the car? Squirrels.
Why do I need another abortion? Muthah fukkin SQUIRRELS.
"require physicians to ask their patients why they are getting abortions and then report that information back to the government"
This from the same party that forbade collection of statistics on gun violence, and even gagged pediatricians from talking to children and their parents about gun safety. Truly, the pro-life party.