A Shawnee County District Court judge has temporarily blocked a new abortion restriction that was set to take effect in Kansas in July. The new law bars a procedure where tools are used to remove a fetus in pieces. The legislation calls it “dismemberment abortion.”
The judge says the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights, and that justifies putting the law on hold.
Janet Crepps, with 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,” says Crepps.
An attorney with the group Kansans for Life, Jessie Basgall, disagrees with the judge's argument that abortion rights are 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,” says Basgall.
Kansas was the first state in the nation to approve a ban on this specific abortion method.