(Updated to include comments from Kansans for Life and Planned Parenthood)
Kansas set a new record for abortions in 2023, attributable mostly to women coming from states where abortion was banned after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The state’s new vital statistics report – made public Friday morning – shows that there were 19,467 abortions performed in Kansas during 2023, the most recent year available.
It was the most abortions performed in Kansas since 1976, the year the state first started tracking abortions.
It was a 58% increase from 2022, which only reflected just six months of data after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the report showed.
Of the 19,467 abortions performed in Kansas during 2023, about 78%, or 15,111, were for women from out of state.
Kansas residents obtained 4,355 abortions, or 22%, within the state in 2023.
The number of abortions for out-of-state women last year was 78% higher than in 2022, and the number of abortions for Kansas women was about 13% more than a year earlier.
Most of the out-of-state women who underwent an abortion in Kansas – 7,606 – came from Texas, where abortion is banned.
Another 3,283 women came from Oklahoma and 3,045 came from Missouri, where voters this year effectively overturned the state’s abortion ban through a constitutional amendment.
Another 728 women came from Arkansas to get an abortion, and 208 came from Louisiana, the report shows.
The number of women from those five states – Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas – made up about 76% of the patients who underwent an abortion in Kansas.
Danielle Underwood, Kansas for Life director of communications, released the following statement:
“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. Anyone who says this is what Kansans voted for is a liar and on the wrong side of history.”
The new abortion numbers are slightly less than what The Society for Family Planning — a research group that supports abortion rights — estimated earlier this year.
The group released a study last summer estimating that there were 21,070 abortions performed in Kansas during 2023.
Kansas has been drawing women from other states after Roe was overturned in 2022 and voters two years ago rejected a constitutional amendment explicitly removing the right to an abortion from the Kansas Constitution, a right affirmed by the state Supreme Court.
The state health department made public the latest Kansas abortion numbers much later this year than in previous years.
The report has traditionally been issued in early spring, but in recent years it has been pushed back into late spring and early summer.
The new report shows that during 2023, about 68% of all abortions occurred before nine completed weeks of gestational age.
About 91% were performed before the 13th week of gestation, and about 3% of women obtained an abortion after 16 weeks of gestation.
There were no abortions after 22 weeks gestation reported for Kansas women.
Most of the abortions reported in Kansas – 13,032 – were drug-induced, something that the Kansas Legislature tried to address with by passing law requiring physicians to inform women that the procedure can be reversed.
A state court has blocked the state from putting that law into place, based primarily on the state Supreme Court finding a right to an abortion in the Kansas Constitution.
Last year, a Johnson County judge issued a temporary injunction that not only halted that law but prevented the state from enforcing broad sections of the Women’s Right to Know law, including the state’s 24-hour waiting period for abortions
Emily Wales, president and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said the report only reflects what her group has seen since Roe was overturned.
“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,” Wales said in a statement.
“The last thing we want to hear is that a patient who lives 15 minutes from one of our health centers is struggling to get access to abortion services because of another patient who has driven hours from a state where politicians no longer trust them to make their own private medical decisions,” she said.
“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.”
Court records show Planned Parenthood has seen the number of patients seeking access to abortion grow approximately 40% following the reversal of Roe.
Planned Parenthood submitted testimony in court indicating that 50% of those abortion patients now come from states other than Kansas and Missouri.
Nearly two-thirds of Planned Parenthood’s patients seeking an abortion have traveled
more than 100 miles to access the procedure, court records show.
Most of the abortions in Kansas were sought by women ranging in age from 20 to 24, the report shows.
About 32% of the women – or 6,264 – who underwent an abortion during 2023 fell into that age group, the report shows.
About 28% of the women – or 5,398 – who underwent an abortion during 2023 ranged in age from 25 to 29 years old.
About 9% of all abortions in Kansas during 2023 – 1,706 – involved females under 20 years old, including 36 under 15 years old.
About 86% percent all reported abortions in 2023 were to unmarried women, according to the state report.
Among Black non-Hispanic women in this group, 93% were unmarried, while about 84% percent of white non-Hispanic women and about 87% percent of Hispanic women were unmarried, the report showed.
