The number of Kansas abortions surged to the highest point ever last year, the first full year after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to terminate a pregnancy.

Nearly 19,500 abortions occurred in 2023, up from 12,319 in 2022, according to statistics published Friday by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The number represents a 63% increase from one year to the next.

Most individuals who obtained abortions lived out of state, a sign of Kansas’ prominent role in providing regional abortion access since the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2022 that allowed several nearby states, including Missouri, to ban the procedure. The Kansas Constitution protects the right to abortion, under a landmark 2019 state Supreme Court decision.

The statistics come after Missourians voted in November to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution and overturn a ban passed by the General Assembly. Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit in Missouri state court to overturn a series of restrictions in hopes of again offering abortion services. A Jackson County judge could rule on the request at any time.

The new Kansas numbers underscore how Missouri residents have come to rely on Kansas for abortion access. Last year, 4,356 Kansas residents had an abortion, compared to 15,111 out-of-state residents. Missouri residents alone accounted for 3,045 abortions – up from 2,883 in 2022.

Planned Parenthood has indicated that if the Missouri restrictions are struck down, it’s prepared to immediately begin offering abortions at clinics in Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis. That would result in three clinics in the Kansas City metro offering abortion – one in Kansas City, Kansas, one in Overland Park and one in Kansas City, Missouri.

Emily Wales, president and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said in a statement that the statistics report reflects what the organization has observed since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision – that patients from states without abortion access have continued to rely on Kansas as an access point.

“Just as important, we have worked at Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains to ensure Kansans are still able to receive those services in their home state, and we’ve expanded services to try and meet that need,” Wales said.

“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,” Wales added. “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.”

Overall, 19,467 abortions were performed in Kansas in 2023, the highest total number by far since the state began tracking statistics in 1976. The state recorded its previous high of 12,445 abortions in 1999.

Still, the ratio of abortions to live births remains below record levels among Kansas women. For every 1,000 live births in Kansas last year, 128 abortions occurred among residents. That’s higher than the ratio of 111.8 in 2022, but lower than much of the 1990s and 2000s, when the ratio was consistently in the 160s and 170s.

Kansans for Life, which supported an unsuccessful effort to pass a state constitutional amendment in 2022 that would have given state lawmakers the power to ban abortion, in a statement called the surge a “heartbreaking reminder” of what it called 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.”

A Johnson County judge has previously halted officials from enforcing a 24-hour waiting period for abortions. He also blocked enforcement of rules mandating abortion providers, without evidence, post information in clinics and online warning abortions can increase the risk of breast cancer and premature birth in future pregnancies.

“Anyone who says this is what Kansans voted for is a liar and on the wrong side of history,” KFL spokesperson Danielle Underwood said.

Friday’s release of the abortion statistics marked a change from Kansas’ past practice. For decades, the state has released statistics in the spring or early summer. This year, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment included the statistics in its annual vital statistics report.

The change came as the agency prepared to comply with a new state law that mandates two abortion reports every year. The measure, passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto, requires abortion providers to survey women, asking them to choose the most important reason for getting an abortion.

Those reasons include financial stress, rape, fetal disabilities, or the health of the mother as options. The survey does not include an “other” option, a point of contention for opponents. KDHE will compile the data into a report publicly released twice a year.

The survey law isn’t currently being enforced. Lawyers for abortion providers and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach reached an agreement this summer to hold off on enforcing the survey requirement until a final judgment in a legal challenge of the law, which is potentially years away.

In exchange, a trial over the rules was delayed until at least summer 2025, giving both sides more time to prepare.

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