A Kansas judge on Wednesday blocked a 2011 state law that barred doctors from prescribing abortion pills via telemedicine.

Judge Teresa L. Watson reinstated a temporary injunction to prohibit enforcement of the law, which is at the center of a lawsuit brought in 2019 by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of a Wichita abortion clinic. The law required abortion-inducing drugs to be given to patients in the same room as the doctor who prescribed the medication, effectively banning telemedicine abortion services.

This decision will further open up abortion care in Kansas at a time its urgently needed. In this post-Roe world, telemedicine can make the difference in being able to receive abortion care or not. Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement on Wednesday following the release of the court injunction.

For now, physicians physically present at clinics can provide care for patients located anywhere within Kansas, but not beyond its borders. A patient from another state may still see a doctor at a Kansas clinic if they go to the clinic in person.