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Abortion in Kansas is legal. An abortion may be performed at 20 or more weeks postfertilization only in cases of life or severely compromised physical health. This law is based on the assertion that a fetus can feel pain at that point in pregnancy. The state also had detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirement by 2007. Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers law applied to medication-induced abortions and private doctor offices in addition to abortion clinics were in place by 2013. In 2015, Kansas became the first state to ban the dilation and evacuation procedure, a common second-trimester abortion procedure. State laws about abortion have been challenged at the Kansas Supreme Court and US Supreme Court level.
The number of abortion clinics in the state has been declining in recent years, going from 23 in 1982, to 15 in 1992, to 4 in 2014. There were 7,219 legal abortions in 2014, and 6,931 in 2015. Almost half were obtained by out-of-state residents. The state has seen anti-abortion rights violence, including the kidnapping of a doctor in 1982 and the killing of Doctor George Tiller in 2009.