AG files appeal to allow telemedicine abortion ban in Kansas

TOPEKA, Kan. – Kansas is appealing a judge’s ruling that allows telemedicine abortions in the state even though legislators have enacted three laws against them within eight years.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt filed the appeal Friday with the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Schmidt hopes to overturn a Dec. 31 decision by Shawnee County District Judge Franklin Theis in a lawsuit filed by a Wichita clinic’s operators. Since October, clinic doctors have conferred with some patients through teleconferences when providing pregnancy-ending drugs.

Theis ruled that a 2018 law banning telemedicine abortions has no legal force because it contained no way to punish violators.

The judge also ruled that 2011 and 2015 laws are on hold indefinitely because they’re covered by an injunction in a separate lawsuit challenging abortion regulations that is still pending.