Kansas Becomes First State to Ban Controversial Abortion Technique That Dismembers Unborn Child 'One Piece At a Time'

Kansas became the first state in the nation Tuesday to ban a controversial yet common second-trimester abortion procedure that critics describe as dismembering a fetus.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, a strong abortion opponent, signed SB 95 imposing the ban.

The new law, which takes effect July 1, was immediately hailed by anti-abortion advocates.

SB 95 defines dismemberment abortion as a procedure "with the purpose of causing the death of an unborn child, knowingly dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush or grasp a portion of the unborn child's body in order to cut or rip it off."

The law was modeled after the National Right To Life proposal.

"The Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act is the first of what we hope will be many state laws banning dismemberment abortions," said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. "This law has the power to transform the landscape of abortion policy in the United States."

The law says dismemberment abortion "does not include an abortion which uses suction to dismember the body of the unborn child by sucking fetal parts into a collection container."

Section 3 of the law says no person will be allowed to perform or attempt to perform dismemberment abortion on an unborn child unless the procedure "is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant woman" and "a continuation of the pregnancy will cause a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman."

However, not everyone welcomed the new law.

"I am disappointed and concerned by Governor Sam Brownback's decision to sign SB 95 into law today," said Julie Burkhart, founder and CEO of Trust Women and South Wind Women's Center.

"SB 95 will disrupt the trusted physician and patient relationship by prohibiting physicians from using their sound medical judgment to decide what is best for their patients," she said.

Burkhart earlier sent Brownback a letter urging him to veto the bill, saying that "this dangerous law dictates to qualified physicians how they can practice medicine and treat their patients."

She noted that the state of Kansas has already spent over $1 million to defend unconstitutional anti-choice legislation.

Abortion rights supporters said the procedure that is now banned in Kansas is often the safest for women seeking to terminate pregnancies during the second trimester. This type of procedure accounted for about 9 percent of abortion cases last year in Kansas, where most pregnancies are terminated in the first trimester. Kansas already bans most abortions at or after the 22nd week of pregnancy.