Kansas Appellate Court rules for a Kansas Right to Abortion

AP) – Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt says he’ll ask the state Supreme Court to review a ruling from a lower court that blocks the state from enforcing its first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure.
The Republican attorney general said in a statement that Friday’s ruling from the Kansas Court of Appeals provides little legal clarity.
The Court of Appeals split 7-7, allowing a trial-court judge’s decision against the 2015 law to stand. The split means the Court of Appeals upheld the trial-court judge’s finding that the state constitution protects abortion rights independently of the U.S. Constitution.
Schmidt said he’s always anticipated that the Kansas Supreme Court will have to decide the issue.
A national abortion-rights group says this is a groundbreaking ruling in blocking enforcement of a ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure.
The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights noted that the Friday decision was the first time an appellate court in the conservative state said the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights independently of the U.S. Constitution.
An anti-abortion leader and a top Kansas legislator are dismayed by a Kansas Court of Appeals ruling that blocks enforcement of the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure.
Kansas Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce says he can’t imagine a scenario where the framers of the Kansas Constitution meant to legalize abortion.