TOPEKA — The Kansas Court of Appeals has refused to allow the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion method to take effect.
The court released the ruling Friday, the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
A lower court put the law on hold last year. The state’s second-highest court upheld that decision Friday, though an appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court is expected.
The case comes in a lawsuit filed by two abortion providers who say the 2015 law unconstitutionally burdens women seeking abortions.
The law prohibits doctors from using forceps or similar instruments on a live fetus to remove it from the womb in pieces. The Center for Reproductive Rights says the procedure is the safest and most common second-trimester abortion method in the U.S.
