Judge Blocks Ban on Abortion Procedure

A judge on Thursday blocked Kansas’s ban on a 2nd-trimester abortion procedure that opponents have described as “dismembering” a fetus, saying that banning the procedure presents too large an obstacle to women seeking abortions. The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the lawsuit this month, argued that banning the procedure would force women to seek out riskier procedures or unwillingly bring the child to term. “The alternatives do not appear to be medically necessary or reasonable,” Shawnee County District Court Judge Larry Hendricks said from the bench. The law was supposed to go into effect July 1. Hendrick’s order will stay in effect while he considers the lawsuit further.