By Elana Gordon
KANSAS CITY, Ks. – The same day that Kansas published its permanent abortion licensing rules, two providers announced plans to challenge them in court.
Bonnie Scott Jones, with the Center for Reproductive Rights, says her New York-based group will soon file a new lawsuit on behalf of the Center for Women's Health, an Overland Park Practice which provides abortion services.
"The [permanent] regulations impose a number of irrational and burdensome requirements on abortion providers that are applied in no other areas of medicine," says Jones. "They make no sense, and will simply make abortion services more unavailable, and completely unavailable for some women."
Jones says the rules also violate patient privacy by giving the state broad access to medical records.
The new rules are similar to temporary ones, which a federal judge has temporarily blocked, amid court challenges from two of the state's three abortion providers (now involved in this upcoming lawsuit). But among other changes, the new rules ease controversial room-size requirements.
During the last legislative session, the state enacted a law, mandating new licensing regulations for abortion services. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has said it must do its job within the law in designing and moving forward with these new rules, and that they promote the welfare of patients.
Jones plans to file the new legal challenge before the rules take effect November 14. A clinic in Kansas City Kansas, Aid for Women, also seeks to join the suit.
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