Kansas.- The Kansas Supreme Court reaffirmed abortion protections in the state Constitution on Friday, striking down Republican-backed laws that banned a common second-trimester abortion procedure and created additional requirements for licensing clinics to perform abortions.
The rulings were the latest setbacks for abortion opponents in Kansas, a conservative state that has been the scene of some of the most high-profile and divisive debates over abortion in the country.
Recently, in a closely watched vote in 2022, on the heels of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Kansas residents rejected an attempt to strip abortion protections from the state Constitution.
The decisions Friday blocked enforcement of a 2015 law banning delay and evacuation, the most common form of late-term abortion, and permanently blocked laws creating special requirements for licensing abortion clinics.
Each of the rulings was by a vote of 5-1.
The majority included judges appointed by Democrats and one judge appointed by a Republican.
Abortion rights supporters welcomed the decisions.
“This is a tremendous victory for the health, safety and dignity of people in Kansas and across the North Central region, where millions of women have been denied access to abortion,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.
For decades, voters have alternated between Republican and Democratic governors; Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who is serving her second term, supports abortion rights.
Republicans have won by overwhelming margins in many rural areas, but the state’s most populous county, Johnson County, which is a suburb of Kansas City, has swung rapidly toward Democrats over the past decade.
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