WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Court of Appeals is deciding whether to allow the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion method.
The court is expected to release its decision Friday, the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe versus Wade decision.
The lawsuit was filed by two abortion providers who said the 2015 law unconstitutionally burdens women seeking to end their pregnancies. A lower court has temporarily put the law on hold.
At issue is whether the Kansas Constitution’s broad language about individual liberty protects abortion rights.
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 in the U.S. in the second trimester.