Kansas law nullifying end-of-life wishes during pregnancy challenged in court
A Kansas state law that revokes a person's decisions about end-of-life care if they are pregnant is now being challenged in court.
Three women, one of whom is currently pregnant, and two doctors filed a lawsuit in Kansas over a clause in the state's Natural Death Act that denies people who are pregnant with the ability to accept or refuse health care if they become incapacitated or terminally ill.
The plaintiffs argue that the clause violates their rights to liberty and personal autonomy and infringes their right to privacy.
Emma Vernon, the plaintiff who is currently pregnant, wrote an advance health care directive outlining the care she would like to receive if she is diagnosed with a terminal condition.
Vernon said she would like to only accept life-sustaining treatment if 'there is a reasonable medical certainty' that her child would reach full term and be born 'with a meaningful prospect of sustained life' and without health conditions that would 'impair its quality of life,' according to the lawsuit.
But her directive has not been 'given the same deference the law affords to others who complete directives because of the Pregnancy Exclusion,' the lawsuit argues.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach's (R) office did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill about the lawsuit.
All states have laws that give people the right to craft advance directives on the health care they would like to receive if they become unable to make their own health decisions. And many of those laws have caveats excluding pregnant people, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the lawsuit's filing.
Kansas is one of nine states with a law that invalidates an advanced directive of a pregnant patient regardless of if the fetus can survive, according to Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit organization that advocates for end-of-life care.
The doctors who joined the lawsuit filed Thursday say the law forces them to provide pregnant patients with a lower standard of care than other patients and opens them up to civil and criminal lawsuits and professional penalties.
Compassion & Choices, along with the abortion and reproductive rights lawyer group If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice and the law firm Irigonegaray & Revenaugh, filed the lawsuit on behalf of all five plaintiffs.
End-of-life care laws have come under scrutiny recently amid reports of a brain-dead pregnant woman in Georgia whose family says doctors are keeping on life support until her baby can be delivered to abide by the state's abortion ban.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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