Kansas ban on abortion method remains on hold

Now with the Supreme Court poised to render a decision in the case of Whole Women’s Health v. Cole, Planned Parenthood of Montana gathered with its supporters at the Billings Library to address what it calls the “Reality of women’s health before and after Roe v. Wade”. The split decision, 7-7, shows a sharp disagreement within the Court concerning whether the Kansas Constitution really includes the right to an abortion. The dilation and evacuation procedure was the safest for women’s health in the second trimester, they said.

“The heart of the person who most symbolized abortion in this country has been touched and captured, if you will”, said Bill Price, president of Texans United for Life, at the time.

As MPR News explains, women who can’t afford to pay for abortions in Minnesota are able to get them through a state-subsidized health care plan.

SHOT: And in case you needed any convincing – are you reading this, Justice Kennedy? – that Texas abortion laws place “an undue burden” on abortion rights: Women in the Lone Star State who lack the time or resources to travel hundreds of miles to a clinic often resort to self-induced, medically risky abortions. Abortion opponents fear that state courts could then invalidate restrictions in Kansas that the federal courts would allow.

Planned Parenthood has also been accused of widespread non-reporting of child sex abuse while documentation by Life Dynamics, Inc. proves that Planned Parenthood specifically targets minority communities, especially African-Americans, for abortion.

The law, the anti-abortion group said in a statement, was created to pass muster with the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It has been said – politically and culturally – that for one to be pro-woman one must be pro-choice”, the movement’s official website states.

A Shawnee County judge cited the same constitutional language when blocking the law previous year, ruling that the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights at least as much as the U.S. Constitution.

David Gittrich of Kansans for Life said his group will work to oust Kansas Court of Appeals judges in elections later this year. “We completely denounce that decision”, said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, whose national headquarters are located in Wichita, Kansas.

Joe Rosenthal, of Salt Lake City, said that while many people view abortion as a religion issue, he believes “it’s a civil rights and human rights issue … and we’ve forgotten that”.

The dissenting judges wrote that balancing the rights of a pregnant woman and an unborn child is a question of public policy.

The provisions in the Texas law known as HB2 have been condemned by the federal government and medical experts like the American Medical Association, as well as prominent legal scholars, business and faith leaders, and legislators from both sides of the aisle.

There’s likely to be more action this year, with a handful of states considering 20-week abortion bans and Congress’ Planned Parenthood investigation ongoing.

Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation for America, fears that the number of unsafe abortions will grow as legislation continues to chip away at landmark cases such as 1973’s Roe v. Wade and 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the legal right to an abortion was again upheld.

They list “six active abortion businesses that prove that Roe v. Wade did not make abortion safe – certainly not for the almost 58 million babies who have died brutal deaths from abortions, but not for their mothers, either”.

Over the years, pro-lifers participating in the March for Life have endured freezing rain, snow and sub-zero temperatures and there might have been more than one blizzard that swept through the nation’s capital on or around the Roe anniversary.