Kansas Statutes 65-445. Termination of human pregnancy; records; annual reports; confidentiality of information, exceptions; criminal penalties for violations
Terms Used In Kansas Statutes 65-445
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Medical care facility: means a hospital, ambulatory surgical center or recuperation center, except that "medical care facility" does not include a hospice that is certified to participate in the medicare program under 42 C. See Kansas Statutes 65-425
- Medical facility: includes public health centers; psychiatric hospitals; health maintenance organizations as defined in Kan. See Kansas Statutes 65-411
- Month: means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed. See Kansas Statutes 77-201
- Person: means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, or joint-stock association, and the legal successor thereof. See Kansas Statutes 65-425
- Physician: means a person licensed to practice medicine and surgery in this state. See Kansas Statutes 65-425
- Secretary: means the secretary of health and environment. See Kansas Statutes 65-411
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Kansas Statutes 77-201
(a) Every medical care facility shall keep written records of all pregnancies that are lawfully terminated within such medical care facility and shall annually submit a written report thereon to the secretary of health and environment in the manner and form prescribed by the secretary. Every person licensed to practice medicine and surgery shall keep a record of all pregnancies that are lawfully terminated by such person in a location other than a medical care facility and shall annually submit a written report thereon to the secretary of health and environment in the manner and form prescribed by the secretary.
(b) Each report required by this section shall include the number of pregnancies terminated during the period of time covered by the report, the type of medical facility in which the pregnancy was terminated, information required to be reported under Kan. Stat. Ann. § 65-6703(b) and (c), 65-6705(j), 65-6721(c) and 65-6724, and amendments thereto, if applicable to the pregnancy terminated, information required to be reported under Kan. Stat. Ann. 2023 Supp. 65-6758, and amendments thereto, and such other information as may be required by the secretary of health and environment, but the report shall not include the names of the persons whose pregnancies were so terminated or upon whom an attempted abortion was performed. Each report required by Kan. Stat. Ann. § 65-6703(b) and (c), 65-6705(j) and 65-6721(c), and amendments thereto, shall specify the medical diagnosis and condition constituting a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function or the medical diagnosis and condition that necessitated performance of an abortion to preserve the life of the pregnant woman. Each report required by Kan. Stat. Ann. § 65-6703, and amendments thereto, shall include a sworn statement by the physician performing the abortion and the referring physician that such physicians are not legally or financially affiliated.
(c) Information obtained by the secretary of health and environment under this section shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed in a manner that would reveal the identity of any person licensed to practice medicine and surgery who submits a report to the secretary under this section or the identity of any medical care facility that submits a report to the secretary under this section, except that such information, including information identifying such persons and facilities may be disclosed to the state board of healing arts upon request of the board for disciplinary action conducted by the board and may be disclosed to the attorney general or any district or county attorney in this state upon a showing that a reasonable cause exists to believe that a violation of this act has occurred. Any information disclosed to the state board of healing arts, the attorney general or any district or county attorney pursuant to this subsection shall be used solely for the purposes of a disciplinary action or criminal proceeding. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, information obtained by the secretary under this section may be used only for statistical purposes and such information shall not be released in a manner that would identify any county or other area of this state in which the termination of the pregnancy occurred. A violation of this subsection (c) is a class A nonperson misdemeanor. The provisions of this subsection shall expire on July 1, 2028, unless the legislature reviews and reenacts such provisions in accordance with Kan. Stat. Ann. § 45-229, and amendments thereto, prior to July 1, 2028.
(d) In addition to such criminal penalty under subsection (c), any person licensed to practice medicine and surgery or medical care facility whose identity is revealed in violation of this section may bring a civil action against the responsible person or persons for any damages to the person licensed to practice medicine and surgery or medical care facility caused by such violation.
(e) For the purpose of maintaining confidentiality as provided by subsections (c) and (d), reports required by this section shall identify the person or facility submitting such reports only by confidential code number assigned by the secretary of health and environment to such person or facility and the department of health and environment shall maintain such reports only by such number.
(f) The annual public report on abortions performed in Kansas issued by the secretary of health and environment shall contain the information required to be reported by this section to the extent such information is not deemed confidential pursuant to this section. The secretary of health and environment shall adopt rules and regulations to implement this section. Such rules and regulations shall prescribe, in detail, the information required to be kept by the physicians and hospitals and the information required in the reports that must be submitted to the secretary.
(g) The Kansas department for children and families shall prepare and publish an annual report on the number of reports of child sexual abuse received by the department from abortion providers. Such report shall be categorized by the age of the victim and the month the report was submitted to the department. The name of the victim and any other identifying information shall be kept confidential by the department and shall not be released as part of the public report.