The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state constitution protects abortion rights, blocking the legislature’s 2015 ban on second-trimester abortions.
In the ruling, from which only one of seven justices dissented, the court says that the state constitution’s “declaration of natural rights, which specifically includes the rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, protects the core right of personal autonomy — which includes the ability to control one’s own body, to assert bodily integrity, and to exercise self-determination.”
Because the protection of abortion rights is enshrined in the state constitution, abortion will remain legal in Kansas even if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses or narrows the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
The ruling says the Bill of Rights for Kansans begins with a statement of inalienable rights, “demonstrating the supremacy placed on the rights of individuals, preservation of these natural rights is given precedence over the establishment of government.”
Read more at the Washington Examiner.
