Kansas judge weighs nation's 1st ban on abortion method
(AP) — An abortion rights group will ask a Kansas judge Thursday to block the state's first-in-the-nation ban on what it says is the most common method for terminating second-trimester pregnancies, contending that the new law would force some women to either accept higher medical risks or forgo abortions.
[...] the state's lawyers were expected to argue in Shawnee County District Court that abortion providers have safe alternatives to the procedure, which anti-abortion activists describe as dismembering a fetus.
Dilation and evacuation procedures accounted for about 9 percent of all abortions in Kansas last year, according to the state health department.
The state's lawyers argued that doctors could avoid violating the ban and still perform safe abortions by first giving the fetus a lethal injection or by severing its umbilical cord in the womb.
[...] the lawsuit said there have been few studies of the safety of the alternative methods and that lethal injections for the fetus could increase of nausea, vomiting and infection in women.