Most Kansans support expanding Medicaid, abortion rights, new survey finds
A significant majority of Kansans support expanding Medicaid — including more than half of Republicans — according to the 2023 Kansas Speaks public opinion survey.
A significant majority of Kansans support expanding Medicaid — including more than half of Republicans — according to the 2023 Kansas Speaks public opinion survey.
Research estimates Kansas saw one of the most significant increases in abortions in the country, driven by a surge in patients from nearby states.
Kansas awarded a $2 million contract to start a state program aimed at influencing women with unplanned pregnancies to give birth and to accept guidance of a nonprofit directed by some of the state’s most vocal opponents of abortion rights.
Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said her organization, like many of the state’s other abortion providers, has been flooded with an influx of out-of-state visitors seeking care denied to them in their own states.
Abortion providers are suing over a handful of new and old abortion restrictions they say violate Kansans’ right to abortion. AG Kris Kobach says the rules are necessary.
”One year ago, Kansas became the first state in the nation to vote on reproductive rights following the fall of Roe v. Wade and the first to boldly protect the constitutional right to abortion,” Rachel Sweet writes in this Kansas Reflector column.
Kansas reported its highest number of abortions in decades last year, after the overturning of Roe sent thousands of out-of-state patients to Kansas clinics.
In Kansas, where abortion rights are still protected, a surge is predicted for the 2022 year due to out-of-state abortion seekers.
Kansas will not enforce its new “abortion pill reversal” law, set to take effect July 1, until a court rules on abortion providers’ request for a temporary injunction.
Kansas abortion providers filed a lawsuit combating an “abortion reversal” law based on a debunked study, calling the state’s tightened abortion regulations increasingly “inaccurate” and a violation of bodily integrity.
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