Court Dismisses Kansas “Kiss and Tell” Case

This week, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit dismissed the government’s appeals in the case concerning the Kansas “kiss and tell” policy.

The policy would have required health care providers and counselors to report all sexual activity by teenagers under 16, including kissing between two teens, to state authorities as evidence of child abuse.

A group of health care and counseling professionals represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights filed the case challenging the policy and succeeded in permanently blocking it in 2006.

The case, Aid for Women v. Foulston, was dismissed this week because the Kansas state legislature recently revised the state’s child abuse reporting law in a way that makes clear that the law does not require blanket reporting of all adolescent sexual contact.