Abortion curb faces challenge

An abortion rights group is asking a Kansas judge to block the state’s first- in- thenation ban on what it says is the most common method for terminating second- trimester pregnancies, contending that the new law would force women to either accept higher medical risks or forgo abortions.

But the state’s lawyers were expected to argue Thursday in Shawnee County District Court that abortion providers have safe alternatives to the procedure, which antiabortion activists describe as dismembering a fetus. District Judge Larry Hendricks’ hearing in a lawsuit f iled by the Center for Reproductive Rights comes f ive days before the ban is to take effect.

The ban would forbid doctors from using forceps, clamps, scissors or similar instruments on a live fetus. Such instruments are commonly used in dilation and evacuation procedures in the second trimester.