Inspired by a Nebraska law, pro-life advocates in five other states have won passage of measures banning virtually all abortions after five months of pregnancy. The late-term bans are based on the premise that fetuses at that stage can feel pain.
Kansas is one of the five states – along with Alabama, Idaho, Indiana and Oklahoma – that enacted abortion bans this year modeled after the groundbreaking fetal-pain bill passed in Nebraska in 2010. The Kansas ban is effective after 21 weeks, the others after 20 weeks. Exceptions are allowed when the mother’s life is at risk or she faces severe physical impairment.
The bills depart from the standards established by the U.S. Supreme Court which allow states to limit abortions when there’s a reasonable chance the fetus could survive outside the womb, generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks.
Source: The Associated Press