Kansas judges set to consider dismemberment abortion ban

On Wednesday, all fourteen of Kansas’s state appellate court judges will hear arguments on the state’s dismemberment abortion ban, a rare proceeding that facilitates a quicker path to the state Supreme Court.

The Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act bans the dilation and excavation (D&E) procedure commonly used in second-trimester abortions, which removes a fetus limb by limb. The law contains exceptions for removing the parts of already-dead babies separately, abortions using only suction without cutting tools, and to save a mother from severe physical risk.

District Judge Larry Hendricks blocked the law in late June following a challenge from a pair of abortionists represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, in a ruling that found a state constitutional right to abortion in addition to the federal protection claimed by Roe v. Wade.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is appealing the ruling, arguing it poses “significant constitutional gravity” for the future of state abortion law.

Kansans for Life legislative director Kathy Ostrowski agrees, arguing that Hendricks “invented a state right to abortion” that is critical for the judges to reverse.

As Live Action News has noted, abortion defenders often dispute the phrase “dismemberment abortions” as a proper description of D&E procedures, but the pro-choice National Abortion Federation’s own description of D&Es instructs abortionists to “separate” “fetal parts” and “try to identify and keep track of fetal parts as they are removed.”