Kansas Court Plans Ruling Over Ban on Common Abortion Method

By ROXANA HEGEMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS WICHITA, Kan. — Jan 22, 2016, 2:43 AM ET

The Kansas Court of Appeals is expected to decide Friday whether to allow the state's first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion method.

The ruling, which will come on the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, stems from a lawsuit filed by two abortion providers who said the 2015 law is an unconstitutional burden on women seeking to end their pregnancies. A lower court temporarily put the law on hold during the legal fight, which is being closely watched for its potential to affect the state's other restrictive abortion laws.

The law prohibits doctors from using forceps or similar instruments on a live fetus to remove it from the womb in pieces. Such instruments are commonly used in dilation and evacuation procedures, which the Center for Reproductive Rights has said is the safest and most common abortion procedure in the U.S. in the second trimester.

A similar Oklahoma law also was blocked by a state-court judge, while lawmakers in Nebraska have considered similar measures.

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