The Kansas City Star has intervened in abortionists’ lawsuit against the state, demanding the abortion providers reveal hidden court records.
The abortion providers are suing over new state abortion requirements that are currently suspended as the lawsuit makes its way through the courts, including that a woman must wait 24 hours before getting an abortion and that doctors must tell women the abortion pill is reversible.
The Star objected to an agreement between the abortion providers and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach to allow certain exhibits to be filed under seal.
“The public has a right to know what is happening in judicial proceedings,” the Kansas City Star’s executive editor Greg Farmer said. “The efforts in this case to hide records from public view are an attack on long-established democratic principles.”
“Our goal with this motion is to fight for our readers and all Kansans and to ensure and advocate for transparency on their behalf,” Farmer said.
In a court filing, the newspaper asked a Johnson County District Court judge to unseal the exhibits filed under seal, with redactions for patients’ names and personal information.
The abortion providers had filed certain court records as “confidential” or “attorneys’ eyes only.”
The suit was filed back in 2023 against several state officials by three Kansas abortion providers, Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Hodes and Nauser Women’s Health, and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The abortion providers are suing over a group of new state restrictions around abortions.
The new rules require doctors to meet with a woman 24 hours before her abortion and provide her with detailed information about her pregnancy. The rules also require that abortion providers survey women and ask their most important reason for choosing abortion with options like financial stress, rape, fetal disability, or health of the mother.
The doctor must also listen to the baby’s heartbeat 30 minutes before performing an abortion and post information in the abortion clinic and on its website that abortion could increase the risk of breast cancer and premature birth in future pregnancies. The rules also require that women be told the abortion pill is “reversible” if they have only taken the first pill of the two-dose regimen.
“This legislation ensures that women in this situation are provided with all medical information and it’s appalling that Planned Parenthood would attempt to block this information to satisfy their donor base,” Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Republican, said.
Kansas currently allows abortions up to 22 weeks.
