{"id":25309,"date":"2013-01-12T19:01:29","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T00:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=25309"},"modified":"2013-01-12T19:01:29","modified_gmt":"2013-01-13T00:01:29","slug":"kansas-abortion-insurance-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/kansas-abortion-insurance-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas law restricting abortion insurance to go to trial"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"The

The United States and Kansas flag (photo credit: J. Stephen Conn on Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Kansas Legislature passed several laws in 2011 on the area of abortion coverage.\u00a0 At issue in a decision issued by a judge<\/a> in the federal district court of Kansas on Monday was a law that prohibits \u201celective\u201d abortions (defined as an abortion for the purpose of anything other than protecting the life of a mother) from being covered in comprehensive health insurance polices. Coverage for abortion could only be extended as a separate rider option.<\/p>\n

Before the act was passed, 70% of insurance companies included abortion coverage as part of their policies. In a span of one year (July 2010 to July 2011), the three major health insurance companies paid for 137 abortions.<\/p>\n

The pro-abortion American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kansas and Western Missouri claimed that lack of insurance coverage was unfair for those who could not afford an abortion. And so they sued, claiming that this law went against the supposed constitutional \u201cright of privacy\u201d that has been extended to include the \u201cright to an abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both parties asked that the judge decide the case in their favor without a trial. The judge denied the motion of the ACLU but granted part of the state\u2019s motion while denying the other part. This means that the case will go to trial. The judge summed up<\/a> each side\u2019s arguments as follows:<\/p>\n

Plaintiff argues that the Act is unconstitutional because its predominant purpose is to impede access to abortion, not to serve legitimate state interests. Defendant argues in response that the Act does not have the predominant purpose of imposing a substantial obstacle to obtaining abortions but rather that the Act serves several legitimate state interests.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The court looked<\/a> to the landmark Supreme Court decision in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey<\/i> for guidance:<\/p>\n

Casey<\/i> recognizes the right of a woman to have an abortion before viability, but this is not an absolute right. The state may interfere with that right, provided that the interference is not undue, that is, that it does not create a substantial obstacle to a woman\u2019s decision to exercise her right.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

The Tenth Circuit also recognizes that, \u201cunder Casey, a law is invalid if either its purpose or effect is to place a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking to abort a nonviable fetus.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The court firmly stated<\/a> that the ACLU\u00a0 \u201cfailed to provide any evidence that the Legislature\u2019s predominant motivation in passing the Act was only to make abortions more difficult to secure, and this failure is fatal to its motion for summary judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state suggested<\/a> several ways in which state interests were served by this legislation:<\/p>\n

1) promoting childbirth over abortion; 2) protecting the consciences of Kansas citizens who object to paying insurance premiums that are calculated to include the costs of elective abortions; 3) lowering insurance costs; and 4) making the public more aware of the actual cost of abortion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The upcoming trial will center<\/a> around the effect of the Act – i.e., \u201cwhether the Act has the effect of imposing a substantial obstacle on a woman\u2019s right to an abortion.\u201d The state was not able to provide enough evidence for the judge to rule on this without a trial.<\/p>\n

According to the Associated Press<\/a>, the state\u2019s attorney general\u2019s office stated that it was “encouraged by the court’s ruling and will continue to defend the state law.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

States having to defend their own laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":25312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nKansas law restricting abortion insurance to go to trial - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/kansas-abortion-insurance-trial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kansas law restricting abortion insurance to go to trial - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"States having to defend their own laws.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/kansas-abortion-insurance-trial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-13T00:01:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/5284857975_705ab59de4_z.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Heidi Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Heidi Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/kansas-abortion-insurance-trial\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/kansas-abortion-insurance-trial\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Heidi Miller\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/31ef29343a5c21e4507f76129f2497ae\"},\"headline\":\"Kansas law restricting abortion insurance to go to trial\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-13T00:01:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-13T00:01:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/kansas-abortion-insurance-trial\/\"},\"wordCount\":589,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/kansas-abortion-insurance-trial\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/kansas-abortion-insurance-trial\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/kansas-abortion-insurance-trial\/\",\"name\":\"Kansas law restricting abortion insurance to go to trial - 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