TOPEKA — The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled for the first time that the state constitution protects abortion rights and has blocked a first-in-the-nation ban on a common second trimester procedure.
It prevents the state from enforcing a 2015 law that could have reduced second-trimester abortions and allows challenges to other restrictions under the state constitution.
The court said language in the Kansas Constitution guaranteeing individual rights protects a woman’s right to obtain an abortion independent of the U.S. Constitution. Kansas courts could strike down restrictions that have been upheld by the federal courts.
The decision also stymies the attempt by abortion opponents to outlaw what the law described as “dismemberment abortion.”
