KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains is now providing telehealth medication abortion services in Kansas.
A Shawnee County District Court judge struck down a 2011 state law, which prevented doctors from offering abortion services via telemedicine, last month. That ruling paved the way for Tuesday’s announcement.
“By offering medication abortion via telehealth in Kansas, we can now see patients we might not otherwise have been able to treat because of a lack of provider coverage in this region.” Dr. Iman Alsaden, chief medical officer for Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said in a release. “It’s an important step in expanding access in a state like Kansas that has proven it values every person’s ability to make their own health care decisions.”
Planned Parenthood operates three clinics across Kansas, where abortion access is constitutionally protected and voters refused to strip that protection during the August primary.
Kansas was the first state where voters weighed in on abortion rights after the Supreme Court of the United State upended a half-century of precedent and overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
Patients who receive a telehealth consultation will be seen in-person at one of those three clinics to complete consent requirements and other evaluations.
The telehealth physician visit can be performed by a doctor in any state where abortion is legal, but the doctor must be licensed to provide care in Kansas.
Despite this devastating time for reproductive rights, Kansas remains a place that respects patients and their personal health care decisions. Offering medication abortion through telehealth allows CHPPGP to meet the needs of more patients, in an even more timely manner, by greatly increasing the number of physicians available to deliver care.
This is a win not only for Kansans but for patients in surrounding states traveling for care, who have suffered as politicians prioritized scoring points over the rights of patients. We are proud to meet the moment by offering health care to all, regardless of where they live.
Medication abortions — which is different than birth control or emergency contraception, including the so-called “morning-after pill” — are the most common type of abortion, according to Planned Parenthood.
Trigger laws in Missouri and Arkansas along with abortion bans in Texas and Oklahoma had increased the demand for abortion services in Kansas during the last six months.
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