Igor Volsky has an excellent post about the new Kansas abortion regulations Pema wrote about last week. The regulations have caused two of the state's three abortion clinics to shut down and the third to remain open only at the discretion of a board. Volsky makes an excellent point about how, while advocates of these regulations like to emphasize the dangers of late-term abortions, setting up arbitrary obstacles of course makes them more likely.
The larger problem the new Kansas rules illustrate is the fact that existing law allows states to effectively extinguish access to abortion. In theory, Casey's "undue burden" standards could (and should!) be applied to find that rules that cause perfectly safe clinics to close are unconstitutional. But while some lower courts might, it's unlikely that the current Supreme Court would, which makes decisions about litigating very difficult strategically. It's a serious problem for women in many states.
