Kansas has released its annual report on abortion statistics. Here is a rundown of what it says.
Abortions in Kansas have increased since 2022 and have been rising overall.
In 2023, there were 4,356 abortions performed on Kansas residents, of which 4,355 occurred in Kansas, and one was committed out-of-state. This is an increase of 13.3% over 2022. Fifty-three abortions took place in Kansas every day of 2023.
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The abortion ratio in 2023 was 128 per 1000 live births. In 2022, it was 111.8. This represents an increase of 14.5%. The 2023 abortion ratio was the highest since 2008.
But the bulk of abortions in Kansas (15,111) were done on people traveling to Kansas from out of state. These pregnant people were coming to Kansas because there were laws restricting abortion in their home state.
As Live Action News points out, this is an increase of 78% from 2022 and a massive increase of 287% from 2020.
In August 2022, Kansas voters enshrined abortion in their state constitution. This has made the state a go-to destination for people living in states with abortion restrictions.
Most of the people who came to Kansas for abortions were adults. Only 1.7% of abortions on out-of-state people were on minors. This was 254 abortions.
Over half of all people traveling to Kansas for abortions were from Texas (50.3%). Twenty-one-point-seven percent came from Oklahoma, 20.15% came from Missouri, 4.8% came from Arkansas, and 1.4% came from Louisiana.
Very young people, under 15, had only 0.3% of abortions among Kansas residents. However, they had the highest abortion ratio, meaning the highest percentage of their pregnancies were aborted. Their abortion ratio was 722.2 per 1,000 live births. Most teens in this group, then, had abortions.
A little over 72% of teens under 15 aborted. This was among Kansas residents.
Also, among Kansas residents, teens 15-19 made up 10.7% of abortions, with people in their 20s having 59.6% of abortions, people in their 30s having 26.4%, and people in their 40s having 2.8%
So, women in their 20s had the most abortions, followed by women in their 30s. These two age groups accounted for the vast majority of abortions, 86%.
The statistics were similar among travelers from out of state. They break down to:
· 0.15% under 15
· 7.95% from 15 to 19
· 60% in their 20s
· 28.6% in their 30s
· 3% in their 40s
As you can see, relatively few teenagers travel from out of state. Most people coming in for abortions were adults.
The report notes that six teens under 15 had a Report of Physical, Mental, or Emotional Abuse or Neglect filed after their abortions (there were 27 reports filed in total). This is 16.7% of all teens under 15 who had abortions.
Interestingly, there were no reports filed on older teens. The remaining 21 reports were filed on adults.
The abortion ratios of people of color were higher than that of white people. Among white people, the abortion ratio was 80.5. Among Black non-Hispanics, the abortion ratio was almost four times higher—318.3. For Hispanics, it was 196.8.
About 86% of abortions were done on single people. Among Black people, that number was 93%.
While most people having abortions in Kansas were having their first abortion, some had previous abortions:
· 875 had their second abortion in 2023.
· 268 had their third abortion.
· 81 had their fourth abortion.
· 26 had their fifth abortion.
· 23 had their sixth or more abortion.
Among Kansas residents, 69.3% of abortions were committed before nine weeks gestation. Length of gestation is calculated by counting from the start of a woman’s last menstrual period, so these abortions were done at six weeks of conception or earlier. At this stage, the aborted baby doesn’t have a human appearance.
However, the child has a heartbeat at just 22 days after conception (the fifth week of pregnancy) and brain waves at eight-and-a-half weeks gestation. You can see a preborn child’s heart beating at just six weeks and four days’ gestation here. By gestational week eight, the baby responds to touch.
A little under a third of abortions, 30.7%, took place at nine weeks or later, with 21.6% occurring between nine and 13 weeks, 5.9% between 13 and 16 weeks, and 3.2% after 16 weeks.
At just 10 weeks gestation, the baby can have the hiccups. She is already right or left-handed. If she is a girl, she has ovaries of her own.
Here is a picture of a baby at just 10 weeks gestational age. About 6000 abortions took place in Kansas at around this stage or later.
Here are the legs of a baby at 13 weeks gestation. Over 1,770 abortions took place in Kansas at this stage or later.
In an abortion, this child would be dismembered. You can see pictures of what a child looks like after an abortion at 16 weeks gestation (14 weeks after conception) here.
Here is a baby at 18 weeks’ gestation. In Kansas, 623 abortions took place at this stage or later.
Abortion in Kansas is illegal at 22 weeks or later in most cases. No abortions were reported after the legal limit.
Abortion at or beyond 22 weeks is, in fact, legal in Kansas if the pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or there is grave risk to her physical health, yet there were no abortions after 22 weeks.
If a life-threatening condition does arise after 22 weeks, the baby doesn’t have to be killed. The pregnancy can be ended by a C-section or inducing labor, and doctors can deliver the baby alive. Premature babies at 22 weeks have a 28% survival rate, and those born at 23 weeks have a 55% survival rate.
The Kansas statistics are evidence that late-term abortions aren’t needed to save pregnant people’s lives.
These were the methods of abortions committed in Kansas (the numbers are rounded off):
· 30% by suction aspiration
· 67% by the abortion pill
· 3.1% by D&E
· 0.13% by induction (this was 27 abortions)
Abortions by pill, then, comprised most abortions in Kansas. This mirrors an overall trend in the United States.
There were also six abortions by “sharp curettage,” one abortion by Methotrexate (a drug used to treat cancer and rheumatoid arthritis that also is an abortifacient), and four by “other” methods.
In Kansas, abortionists administer abortion pills up to 12 weeks. Over 2400 women (18.5% of those taking the abortion pill) took it between nine and 12 weeks. This is further along in pregnancy than the FDA recommends.
As Live Action News points out, this has also been a trend at Planned Parenthood.
A table had a column on how the length of pregnancy was determined. The most reliable way to date a pregnancy is through ultrasound, which seems to be how most pregnancies are dated.
The table has two different categories for “ultrasound” and “sonogram.” However, it shows that 97.4% of pregnancies were dated by a scan. This seems to indicate that the vast majority of pregnant people are getting sonograms or ultrasounds before abortions.
The report does not address whether these pregnant people were allowed to see their babies on the ultrasound screen. There is no requirement in Kansas that people having abortions must see the ultrasound or even be asked if they want to see the ultrasound.
Infants in Kansas are also dying after birth.
Infant mortality in Kansas has been dropping, but there are still serious racial disparities in the numbers.
People of color (except Asians) had higher rates of infant mortality than white people.
White people had an infant mortality rate of 4.1 per live births. Asians had a rate of 3.7.
Black non-Hispanic babies died at a rate of 10.6 per 1000. This is over twice as high as the white infant mortality rate. Native Americans had a rate of 6.9, and Hispanic babies died at a rate of 5.6, also higher than Whites.
A clue as to why is revealed in another table which tracked how many pregnant people received prenatal care.
Only 3.2% of pregnant white people got no prenatal care or prenatal care only in the third trimester. In contrast, over three times as many Black people (10.3%) received very late or no prenatal care. For Native Americans, this number was 10.5%, and for Hispanic people, it was 11.5%.
Poverty and lack of health insurance may lead to a pregnant person not getting prenatal care.
Kansas has more uninsured people than the national average, with 240,000 residents without health insurance, or 8.4% of the population. Again, there are racial disparities with 6% of white Kansans without insurance, but 20% of Latinos and 11% of Black people not having it.
To protect the lives of infants and enhance the well-being of pregnant people, the medical community and politicians in Kansas should address these disparities.
Kansas politicians have chosen not to accept Medicaid expansion, which leads to more uninsured people. If they changed course, more people would have insurance and be able to get prenatal care, and the infant mortality rate would likely decrease.
LifeNews Note: Sarah Terzo covered the abortion issue for over 13 years as a professional journalist. In this capacity, she has written nearly a thousand articles about abortion and read over 850 books on the topic. She has been researching and writing about abortion since attending The College of New Jersey (class of 1997) where she minored in Women’s Studies. This article originally appeared on Sarah Terzo’s Substack. You can read more of her articles here.
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