A Shawnee County judge has temporarily blocked a new abortion restriction that was supposed to take effect July 1in Kansas. The legislation prohibits a procedure that the law calls “dismemberment abortion,” where a fetus is removed, in pieces, with tools.
The judge says the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights, and that justifies putting the law on hold.
Janet Crepps, of the Center for Reproductive Rights, says this will stop women from having to use riskier procedures to end a pregnancy.
“Let me just repeat how relieved we are that the women of Kansas are not going to suffer under this unreasonable abortion restriction, at least for now,” Crepps says.
Jessie Basgall, an attorney with the group Kansans for Life, says the right to an abortion is not guaranteed by the state Constitution. She says the law is on solid ground.
“I think that ultimately, we’re going to be successful on this claim. This is just whether or not the law’s going to stand while we actually litigate the merits of this law,” Basgall says.
The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights. The center says the new law would cause women to resort to other riskier abortion procedures to end a pregnancy.
Kansas was the first state in the nation to approve a ban on this abortion method.
