Dr. Michele Bennett

Dr. Michelle Bennett (47), an obstetrician-gynecologist, has proudly spent fourteen years practicing full-spectrum reproductive health care in her hometown of Lawrence. When she speaks about her work, she does so with the clarity of a clinician, the care of a mother, and the conscience of a citizen committed to her state.

The eldest of six siblings, Dr. Bennett attended the University of Kansas, where she earned both her bachelor’s degree and her medical degree. An alumna of the Chi Omega sorority, Dr. Bennett is an animal enthusiast with seemingly endless energy and empathy. She completed her residency at the University of Utah and then returned home in 2011 with her husband to serve the community that raised her: “I trained in Kansas. Taxpayer dollars helped support that education. I feel accountable to this community. I want to use my skills for the people here.” Her work at the local hospital spans prenatal care, labor and delivery, gynecological procedures, menopausal support, and in peer review and hospital standards. She ends this list with “and then, also, I’m a mom.” 

Her story is that of a shifting landscape—legal, medical, ethical, and deeply human—that defines reproductive care in Kansas after the June 24, 2022 Dobbs decision, in which the U. S. Supreme Court ruled the Constitution does not protect the right to abortion. Kansans responded that same summer by decisively voting to protect abortion rights under our state constitution. Still, Dr. Bennett sees confusion daily in her exam room: “Patients are often unsure what is legal, what is available, what they can even ask,” she recalls, “We spend a lot of time clarifying misinformation.”

Some patients will tell her, “Well, I haven’t had an abortion,” yet their medical charts reflect standard procedures that include “missed, spontaneous, incomplete, threatened, therapeutic, and elective abortions.” Because lawmakers also misunderstand such terms, they often write policies that criminalize standard obstetric care—care that has nothing to do with elective abortions and everything to do with keeping patients safe. “The term abortion can be used to describe a pregnancy loss at any gestational age,” Dr. Bennett explains, “yet society has recast a neutral medical term into a moral flashpoint.” “What should be a private diagnosis has been made into this public vendetta,” Dr. Bennett states with exasperation, “[What] if cancer care were regulated this way, if cardiovascular care were regulated this way, it would be absurd!”

She states the simple but often overlooked reality: “Pregnancy is not benign.” Her work requires meeting each patient with objectivity and providing them the healthiest framework for their pregnancy and for raising children they may already have. Day after day, she witnesses how medical, social, and financial pressures shape choices her patients must make. “People don’t always make the same decisions that you or I might make,” she says, “and we cannot know what our decision would be unless we were living that lived experience.” Dr. Bennett’s guiding motivation is clear: “equitable care.” Kansas already faces maternal mortality rates significantly higher for Black women—nearly twice that of white mothers, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The doctor points to the need to understand how childhood trauma, structural barriers, and socioeconomic stressors shape pregnancy outcomes. “My goal is to provide a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to all my patients,” she explains.

Policy realities complicate that goal. Kansas is a non-expansion Medicaid state, and 30-40% of obstetric patients rely on KanCare – a safety net. Dr. Bennett raises the alarm because Kansas has not expanded Medicaid; therefore, reimbursement rates remain too low to sustain many obstetric practices. This is especially true in rural communities, as new physicians graduating with significant debt must often leave the state because they cannot afford to practice here.

Social media has also proved a disruptive force. “I get a lot of patients [who say] I don’t want to get pregnant, but I don’t want to use any of these things because I heard online that they’re terrible,” she says of evidence-based contraception. To counter misinformation, she provides factual explanations—risks, benefits, options—and maintains her clinic as a confidential, judgment-free environment where teens and adults can freely ask questions.

Geography further complicates care. Kansas is bordered by or nearby multiple states with close to total abortion bans—making our state a critical refuge for those who can no longer access care in their home states. States with near to total bans, according to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and others, have had significant increases in both maternal and infant mortality rates. This influx of patients crossing borders desperate for care has resulted in longer wait times.

An often misunderstood aspect of abortion is how it intersects with wanted pregnancies. Kansas prohibits most abortions after 22 weeks, even in cases of fetal anomalies incompatible with life. Routine, often joyful, 20-week ultrasounds can become devastating. These to-be parents and their doctors are suddenly forced into a countdown to make arduous decisions. “When a catastrophic anomaly is diagnosed at 20 weeks, we have maybe two weeks to assemble specialists—maternal-fetal medicine, cardiology, genetics, NICU, neurology, and others,” Dr. Bennett explains. “If termination is the safest or most humane option and the pregnancy is past 22 weeks, we have no choice but to send the patient out of state.” She describes the emotional and physical weight: “Time is of the essence. And it is cruel to put families in crisis on the road.”

Because a woman’s advance directive becomes invalid in Kansas once she becomes pregnant, even her clearly stated medical wishes can be overridden. Thus, this state leaves families powerless at such a critical time.

In our conversation, she reflected on a formative moment from her residency. After an emotionally difficult procedure, she stepped into the stairwell. A senior female physician followed her and offered an unvarnished reminder: there would be time to cry and to process later, but right then her patients needed her. It was a lesson in accountability—not the absence of emotion, but the discipline of honoring her professional obligations.

Dr. Bennett then addresses the collapse of obstetric services statewide. “In the past decade, nearly 50% of rural Kansas maternity units have closed,” Dr. Bennett notes. She and fellow coworkers have even begun taking shifts at the Newman Regional Health Hospital in Emporia due to their OB-GYN shortages. Dr. Bennett adds that roughly “30% of our urban obstetric centers have closed in the last 10 years.” Her statement is backed up by a 2025 Health Fund Report commissioned by the KU School of Nursing. Concurrently, the match rate, which is the percentage of medical students who secure a residency position, has declined. “We’re training fewer physicians to take care of women,” she states, “Legal uncertainty and emotional strain push some doctors to leave [Kansas]…We are training fewer OB-GYNs [and] this affects access for everyone.”

Dr. Bennett emphasizes that legislators are often making laws about issues they have never studied or researched. She wishes policymakers could “spend a day in clinic or the operating room [and understand that] abortion is not separate from obstetrics. It is a basic part of medical care. The reasons people make decisions are incredibly complex—medically, socially, financially.” 

She urges Kansans to defend the protections recognized in the Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt (2019), which affirmed bodily autonomy under the Kansas Constitution, because lawmakers continue to introduce bills aimed at narrowing or redefining access under the guise of parental rights or clinic regulations. The doctor urges us all to remain vigilant and demand representatives respect the will of the voters.

Her years of evidence-based research and practice allows her to claim with confidence that, “When we have healthy moms and healthy babies, we have a healthy community. We can have abortion and healthy pregnancies all in the same sentence because empowering our patients to make the best choice for them is really what’s going to be the best for our society.”

Dr. Bennett’s message is ultimately grounded in compassion and clarity: “Trust women to make the right decision for their own bodies.” Imagine someone you love, and the path becomes clear: trust women, trust families, and trust their medical professionals.

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