Kansas judge finds state right to abortion and raises another issue UPDATE

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) —An anti-abortion leader in Kansas says a judge’s decision to block a new abortion law has renewed her group’s interest in changing how Kansas Supreme Court justices are selected.

A county judge on Thursday temporarily blocked a law that bans a common second-trimester abortion procedure that critics call dismembering a fetus. The case will likely get to the Kansas Supreme Court.

Currently, a lawyer-led nominating commission screens applicants for the Supreme Court and picks three finalists, then the governor appoints one.

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, says one of her group’s top priorities is changing that process, which would require amending the Kansas Constitution.

Her group prefers that justices be elected by voters, but it also supports eliminating the commission and allowing the governor to appoint justices with Senate confirmation.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) —An anti-abortion leader in Kansas says a judge’s decision to block a new abortion law has renewed her group’s interest in changing how justices are selected to the Kansas Supreme Court.

Currently, a lawyer-led nominating commission screens applicants for the Supreme Court and picks three finalists. The governor then appoints one, without needing confirmation from lawmakers.

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, says one of her group’s top priorities is changing that process, which would require amending the Kansas Constitution.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) —The judge who blocked a new Kansas abortion law says the state’s constitution protects a woman’s right to have an abortion separately from the U.S. Constitution.

Shawnee County District Judge Larry Hendricks cited a 2006 ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court in which justices said the protections in the state for abortion are generally in line with what the U.S. Constitution offers.

Attorneys on both sides said Hendrick’s ruling Thursday is significant. They say that if his ruling is upheld, the Kansas Supreme Court could grant more protections on abortion than the U.S. Supreme Court does. Abortion opponents have feared such a result, because they’ve pushed in recent years for new restrictions.

The law that Hendricks put on hold would ban a procedure that abortion critics describe as “dismembering a fetus.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge has blocked the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on an abortion procedure opponents refer to as “dismemberment abortion.”

The decision Thursday from Shawnee County District Court Judge Larry Hendricks came in a lawsuit filed from the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights. The center represents two Kansas abortion providers and argued the law would force women to undergo riskier procedures or forgo abortions.

The judge’s order will stay in effect while he considers the lawsuit further. The new law was supposed to take effect July 1.

It bans a second-trimester procedure that anti-abortion activists call “dismemberment abortion” and was model legislation from the National Right to Life Committee. Kansas was the first state to enact it.

The state’s lawyers argued that there are safe alternative abortion methods.