Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Abortion Rights Advocates Challenge New Abortion Laws In Kansas, Kentucky
A group that supports abortion rights on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging a Kansas ban on telemedicine abortions, a practice that allows women in rural areas to get abortion pills without an in-office consultation in a city clinic. The Center for Reproductive Rights contends the anti-abortion section in the Kansas Telemedicine Act is unconstitutional because it treats women seeking abortions differently from other patients seeking medical care through telemedicine. (11/8)
Kentucky鈥檚 protracted legal fight over abortion is entering a new round involving the same combatants, but this time they鈥檒l be arguing over a second-trimester procedure to end pregnancies. Lawyers for Kentucky鈥檚 only abortion clinic will argue in federal court next week that a new state law amounts to an unconstitutional ban on a procedure they term the 鈥渟afest and most common method鈥 of second-trimester abortions. Critics called the procedure a form of dismemberment of a live fetus. (Schreiner, 11/8)