[JURIST] The Kansas Senate [official website] on Friday approved a bill that would prohibit a common second trimester abortive procedure by redefining it as “dismemberment abortions”. The bill was prepared by the National Right to Life Committee [advocacy website] and encountered overwhelming support on the Senate floor, passing in a 31-9 vote. The Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act [text, PDF] imposes civil and criminal liabilities on doctors who perform abortions that require piecemeal removal of a fetus through instruments such as clamps or forceps, allowing for exceptions only when the woman’s life or health is in serious danger. The act also allows the removal of a separated fetus through suctioning methods and does not restrict suctioning when it is applied to a whole fetus. Currently, such “dismembering” procedures comprise eight percent of all abortion procedures in Kansas. The bill will now head to the Kansas House of Representatives, where it will be received by a strong anti-abortion majority.

The issue of reproductive rights [JURIST report] has been a major area of contention for over four decades, starting with the legalization of abortion procedures in Roe v. Wade [JURIST backgrounder, and opinion]. In recent years, there have been many legislative attempts to challenge and redefine the legality of abortion practices, leading to circuit splits [JURIST commentary] that will likely find their way to the US Supreme Court [official website]. Just yesterday, the Mississippi attorney general petitioned [JURIST report] the Supreme Court to allow the state to enforce an abortion law that had been declared unconstitutional by a circuit court. In early February, the Montana Supreme Court granted summary judgment [JURIST report] to Planned Parenthood on their challenge to the state’s abortion parental consent laws. And in late January, the House of Representatives passed a bill [JURIST report] that would preclude federal funding to be awarded to any practice for the purpose of performing abortions.