An influx of patients from Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri drove a surge in demand for abortions at Kansas clinics.
More abortions occurred in Kansas in 2023 than ever before in the state’s recorded history — driven by a surge of patients living in nearby states with abortion bans.
A vital statistics report released Friday by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said 19,467 abortions occurred in Kansas in 2023. That was the first full year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing many states to ban the procedure.
The 2023 figure represents a 58% increase from the 12,318 abortions recorded in 2022 and a 148% increase from the 7,849 recorded in 2021.
The 2023 report shows that less than a fourth of the patients who received abortions at Kansas clinics were in-state residents. Texans made up the largest portion of patients, followed by Kansans, Oklahomans, Missourians and Arkansans.
More than 9 in 10 abortions occurred before the 13th week of pregnancy. None happened after 22 weeks, which is the legal limit in Kansas.
Kansas started reporting yearly abortion figures in 1971. The previous record was set in 1973, when the state recorded 12,612 procedures. The number has ebbed and flowed over the years, with a general trend downward starting around 2000.
The downward trend was broken in 2022, when the state’s clinics saw a renewed influx of out-of-state patients after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
In an email, the anti-abortion lobbying group Kansans for Life called the increase of abortions last year “heartbreaking.”
“The surge of abortions in Kansas is a heartbreaking reminder of the abortion industry’s relentless targeting of vulnerable women who are no longer protected by enforceable informed consent laws or basic abortion facility-inspection and safety standards,” the group’s communications director Danielle Underwood said.
In 2022, Kansas voters overwhelmingly rejected an anti-abortion ballot measure that would have enabled state lawmakers to severely restrict or ban the procedure.
Three new clinics have opened in Kansas in response to the increasing demand from out-of-state residents: in Kansas City, Kansas, in 2021, in Wichita in 2022 and in Pittsburg in August.
“Patients from states that have denied access to critical, life-saving care continue to rely on Kansas as an access point during a national crisis,” said Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which operates the Kansas City, Kansas, and Pittsburg clinics.
“Patients in this state have more rights and better health outcomes than in far too many states in the country, and we are grateful to the voters of Kansas for making that possible.”
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